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 Copyright, 1891 
 By THE BANCROFT COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 TMP92-008834 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In spite of protests from its Author, I undertake the 
 task of placing this Dramatic Work before the public 
 without resorting to those multitudinous accessories which 
 could be supplied by the theatrical profession. And 
 though the Author has beseeched me to desist from the 
 attempt, my strong conceit has overpowered his feeble 
 modesty. For some time past his frequent contemplation 
 has been the destruction of this Drama, a conception 
 morbid from its birth. But such destruction I contend 
 would be no less than child-murder. 
 
 " Still," he would say, when argued with from such a 
 view, '" the child is so much morbidly deformed, that 
 when it mingles with the world 'twill be the jest of 
 some, the scorn of others, and the stern repugnance of 
 the world at large." 
 
 " 'Tis not your fault, though, that the child is so 
 deformed," I would reply, "For was it not born so 
 through the laws of Nature over which you could hold 
 no control ? " 
 
 " Yes," he would then assent, " but there are few who 
 would admit that to be true, though I should picture 
 
 5 
 
them the perfect form I fancied that the brat would have. 
 
 But that is not a whole consideration of the trouble; for 
 
 aside from its morbid deformity, it is a bastard child." 
 
 " A satire on its mother is it not? " 
 
 * * * * 
 
 And by such arguments I have induced him to allow 
 the introduction of my rhymes into the matter of his 
 Drama. 
 
 And now, the Author and Myself apologizing for each 
 other's weaknesses, it is submitted to the test which is not 
 feared, although predicted — the jests of some, the scorn 
 of others, and the stern repugnance of the world at large. 
 
 —JULIUS. 
 
REPROACH FULLY DEDICATED 
 TO 
 
 "MY FOSTER MOTHER" 
 
 [SAN FRANCISCO] 
 
 Blush, strumpet " Queen of the Pacific Slope" 
 For while strumpets can blush there still is hope. 
 
 Behind black Tamalpias sank the sun, 
 
 And San Francisco's sky was crimson dun. 
 
 Across the Bay, from Alameda's shore, 
 
 The clouds seemed like a sea of muddy gore. 
 
 One thousand female souls sank into Hell, 
 
 Without the murmur of a funeral knell. 
 
 " Nob Hill's" inhabitants could see their plight, — 
 
 But closed their eyes to hide the awful sight: 
 
 For Hell's "Dupont Street" touches "Nob Hill's" side; 
 
 And yet a gulf between them lies, as wide 
 
 As that which lay 'tween Lazarus and Dives ; 
 
 But different, for here the rich man thrives. 
 
 These thousand female souls wantoned in Hell : 
 
 Five thousand men and youths beside them fell ; 
 
 And ere the shrill-voiced bird announced the morn, 
 
 None know how many souls in Hell were born. 
 
 ! San Francisco, blush, if blush you can! 
 
 For there is hope while still there is a man, 
 
Who feels he has an interest in your rule 
 
 And blushes: — be he not a self-made fool. 
 
 Through what power do these women grow so lewd. 
 
 That they will sell to men their souls for food ? 
 
 Or is it lack of power ? Ah, there 's the thought ! 
 
 Had they the power, how many would have caught 
 
 The hand which left her in this foul quick-mire! 
 
 But when she fell, her lover — love's satire! 
 
 We know the rest — she plunged into despair, 
 
 Yet lived: — would life had ended there! 
 
 Her lover, — let us use the satire still, — 
 
 Continued in the ball-room ; there to fill 
 
 Another's virgin breast with — what was it? 
 
 In her chaste thoughts the lovely maid would sit, 
 
 And wonder — well, again we know the rest: 
 
 Both called themselves " in love," — neither digressed 
 
 From what the purest novels of the day 
 
 Picture as love ; the best theatres would play 
 
 Upon the rising passions of the lovers — 
 
 — And they are married — how much that word covers! 
 
 What seek our lovers when, with passions high, 
 They court each other for the marriage tie? 
 Ah, many a parent, with the passion past, 
 Has when too late, this simple question asked. 
 Why hide the misery of such lives away? 
 That there are many, none can well gain-say: 
 But lovers, married, would not lead such lives, 
 If schooled in love, wherein all pleasure thrives, 
 By casting from the novel and the stage, 
 For a true love, the false love of our age. 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 A DRAMATIC POEM 
 
 Life's theater in darkness : from the stage : 
 
 " Do you think Walton loves your mother more 
 Than when he married her ten years ago ? " 
 " Yes ; for he then had no true love for her." 
 " What do you call the strong attraction which 
 Was thought to be true love, but which was not ? " 
 " A simple fascination which the charms 
 Of social life excited ; nothing more. 
 This fascination withered, and true love 
 Was not formed till the fascination died." 
 u It's time Society ceased to regard 
 An amorous fascination as true love ! " 
 
 " Dear Roger, we know what it is, I'm sure." 
 " Yes Gladys, my sweet wife ! Shall we retire ? " 
 
 " Yes : let us go to sleep and dream — " 
 " That your dear mother, Margaret Kent, will live 
 The errors of her life again ! " 
 # * %. * ^ 
 
 The suriligld of twelve backward yea?-s 
 
 Bursts through the darkness, and then fades away. 
 
 Strange noises fill Imaginations ears, 
 
10 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 And Fancy s eyes are filled, while tempered day 
 Reveals the (esthetic home of Margaret Kent. 
 Her daughter, Gladys — eight years old — is bent 
 
 With painful grace above a manuscript. 
 Her emptied pen into the ink is dipped, 
 
 When Roger Charlton enters — there 'tis left. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Charlton, don't tell anyone ! " 
 
 She tries to hide her manuscript, 
 
 And from her lips a kiss is sipped: — 
 " Don't you tell anyone ! " 
 
 The lips raised by the kiss then pout, — 
 " Now you've seen everything ! " 
 
 He fails to make her meaning out: — 
 
 " I've seen your love ; that might be everything to me." 
 " Oh, but you saw the letter I was writing, didn't you ? " 
 
 She has assumed a frightened air, 
 
 And Charlton gently strokes her hair: — 
 " Gladys, if you were older, I should say, your manner 
 
 gives yourself away ! Love-letter ! — Hey ? " 
 " Ye-es." 
 
 Reluctantly she gives it him : 
 He with expectancy is grim : — 
 u Should I find it for some one else, and some one else 
 
 find it for me, we'd each put out the other's eyes ; 
 
 'fore either one could see if for him or the other you 
 
 intended it to be." 
 In confidence she lifts her face : — 
 
 " I wanted you to have it, but — not yet." 
 
 And lie removes each wrinkle's trace: 
 " Then you intended it for me ! Sweetheart, won't we 
 make love romantic ? Truly this (kisses her). We 
 soil love's romance every time we kiss! — but can't 
 you let me have the letter now ? " 
 W-tth fearful sympathy she speaks : — 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS H 
 
 " Oh, I've not written it to you ! " 
 
 And he exaggerates Love's freaks : — 
 
 11 Horrors! My heart will burst with jealousy. You said 
 it was for me to see— I thought of course it was for 
 me! What! read it now ? Well, hardly. We will 
 have no friendly rivalry." 
 
 He takes his cloak and starts to go, 
 But Gladys face beseeches, " No! " 
 " Do wait a moment ! I want you to help me send it, 
 please." 
 
 'Tis sport for him ; but pain for her :— 
 
 " I help you send it to another ? You're a heartless 
 sweet ! Then may I ask of you, ' Whom is it written 
 to ? "' 
 
 Deep in her breast convulsions stir : — 
 
 " To my - papa." 
 
 Charlton, frowning, drops his cloak : 
 
 " Gladys, what do you know about your father, please? " 
 And she replies in tones which choke : — 
 
 " Only what dear mamma sobs in the night." 
 
 " Tut ! tut ! " 
 
 " Last night I woke up in the dark, and poor mamma 
 was praying here. She didn't seem to know her 
 voice and everything was very strange. It seemed so 
 awful, too, when all was still. I couldn't speak a 
 single word, and so I crept from bed and came and 
 kissed her cheek. She didn't even notice me, but 
 cried so hard that finally she went to sleep and left 
 me standing there beside her in the dark till morning 
 came. I never, never, can forget that night. So I 
 have written him to come. Please read my letter ! 
 Here it is." 
 
12 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Charlton, ivith an effort, yawns, 
 While this truth upon him datvns : — 
 
 " My scheme is rotten if it does not hatch to-night ! " 
 " It isn't very long because I can't write very well." 
 {His eyes then try to follow where she moves her finger through the air.) 
 
 " I told just how I dreamed of him, of what he looked 
 like, and of what he was, and how I longed for him, 
 and how I loved him as my dear papa. And then I 
 told how lonely mamma was, and how she called for 
 him at night, and told how happy we would be if he 
 would come to us. I said that I thought / was 
 worth his coming home to see ; and wondered why 
 he didn't come . You see, I've been explaining as 
 you read, so if you found a word you couldn't read, 
 you would know what it was from hearing me tell 
 you. I guess that he can read it, though." 
 
 He asks her — staring vacantly at space, — 
 
 " Do you know where to send it ? " 
 And she replies, aioed by his solemn face, — 
 
 " Yes, it's written on an envelope — the place mamma did 
 used to send her letters. But a day or two ago I 
 heard her say she hasn't written him for two years 
 now. But I don't find it on the table — here ! it's 
 fallen on the floor. Oh, Mr. Charlton, now what have 
 you done ? " 
 
 " I've spilled the ink, and it is streaked along your dress." 
 
 :i And now mamma will ask how it was done, and I will 
 have to tell her every single thing, when it was to 
 have been my secret ! Oh, what shall I do ? " 
 
 " Just tell her how I spilled the ink, directing a letter to 
 a friend of mine." 
 
 u Wouldn't that be a lie?" 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 13 
 
 At his stern answer Gladys' features seemed to freeze. 
 
 " Yes, it would be a lie, for Robert Kent is not a friend 
 of mine ! Have you another apron just like this ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have three of them." 
 
 11 Then give me this, and I will have another made so 
 near like it no one can tell the difference. It's not 
 stained through on to your dress, and not a drop 
 went on the carpet. Hurry, darling, get your apron 
 off, and I'll address the letter while your gone." 
 ( Gladys quickly leaves the room.) "Now let me see 
 if I can streak another drop of ink ! (writes) ' Robert 
 
 Kent, care of , Rio Janeiro, South America.' 
 
 ( With the letter at arm's length.) Through you I will 
 give God the means to thwart my schemes. (Gladys 
 enters, having cast the Holland apron from her dress.) 
 You've shed your chrysalis as it were ! Now sign 
 your name, and I will mail the letter for you, dear. 
 But let me take the apron, here." 
 
 With painf id features Gladys signs ; 
 And Charlton asks, for his designs, — 
 
 " Let's see ! How shall I carry this ? " 
 
 Gladys, every nerve confused, 
 
 Grows excited : 
 " Someone is coming, Mr. Charlton ! Quick ! " 
 " Give me the letter and excuse me, please ! " 
 
 He steps into a corner of the room. 
 
 A woman is seen standing at the door : 
 
 " Gladys, you dear, delicious, little sweet ! Is mamma 
 in? — No salutation? well that is a cut ! — Still silent? 
 Is your mamma in ? " 
 
 11 N-n-n-no ma'am ; she's not at home." 
 
14 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " That's what we call ' a chestnut ' in society. No answer ? 
 Well ! have I offended her ? — I'll ask you plainly, 
 then, may I come in? — Mrs. Townsend coldly treated 
 at the door of Margaret Kent ! I shall at least demand 
 an explanation, hence I must come in. (Enters.) 
 Oh, Roger Charlton ! are you here ? " 
 He glances at himself from neck to foot : — 
 
 " Yes, and (his hand to Mrs. Toionsend's mouth is put) 
 to-day I'll let them know that Robert Kent will die 
 by my own hand if Margaret refuses to become 
 divorced." 
 
 She points at Gladys in alarm : — 
 
 11 Is it suspected I am in with you ? " 
 
 For both have planned to do Kent harm: — 
 k ' Oh no, but don't be friendly, or you will be off your 
 guard." 
 Miss Longstaffe enters, — Margaret's chaperon, 
 
 Her presence Mrs. T assumes unknoxvn : 
 
 " Only a thief without intelligence would do what you 
 have evidently tried to do." 
 And Mrs. Townsend looks at Charlton, 
 Who attempts to hide the apron : 
 Points at Gladys, who is nervous : 
 " I need no explanation to surmise that you have stolen 
 something from this child." 
 Stern Miss Longstaffe remarks, quite unsuspectingly : — 
 " A strong imagination is guided by its own propensities, 
 but mine can't follow yours. Explain." 
 Mrs. Totcnsend sees ivhat he has hid: — 
 
 " Explain^ or you will be arrested in the act." 
 He wishes himself of the xcoman rid : — 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 15 
 
 " Explain, and you will be arrested in the tongue! " 
 
 Shreivd Mrs. Townsend wants no explanations, 
 But merely to. show no friendly relations: 
 
 " Gladys, will you tell what this thief has taken from 
 
 you ? " 
 " I'll tell what Mr. Charlton has ! » 
 " Excuse me, Gladys, but it really is none of Mrs. Town- 
 
 send's business ; and Mrs. Townsend, I believe that 
 
 Gladys will desire my friendship quite as long as 
 
 yours." 
 
 She gives to him a smile behind the back 
 
 Of Miss Longstaffe, ivho beckons him to her. 
 
 Grave Miss Longstaffe and Charlton leave the room. 
 
 " Well, well, my little dear, I didn't mean to hurt your 
 feelings so ! Come, make a confidante of me. What 
 is it all about?" 
 
 " I wrote a letter to my lost papa, and Mr. Charlton said 
 that he would mail it for me when he went." 
 
 " Come, let me see the letter, please." 
 
 " Why ! he has taken it away." 
 
 " Oh, then the letter's safe." 
 
 And Mrs. Townsend thinks she will depart. 
 
 — Poor Gladys moans, with hand upon her heart, — 
 
 " I feel as if a thunder-storm was coming up inside 
 
 of me ! " 
 
 Miss Longstaffe, seeming satisfied, 
 Returns with Charlton at her side. 
 
 " 1 s'pose you've heard the latest social news from our 
 reporter, — Mrs. Townsend ? It's in the daily paper, 
 here, of yesterday." 
 
 He speaks in anger, strolling towards the fire. 
 
 Miss Longstaffe reads a book to cool his ire. 
 
16 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Well, she has written such an article, that from its 
 import Margaret Kent and I are desperately in love, 
 and only one conclusion can its readers reach ; that 
 Margaret will have a scandal or a quick divorce from 
 Robert Kent should he return from South America. 
 Our social Modesty has grown so bold, that Curiosity 
 now goes stark naked through our drawing-rooms in 
 search of wanton gossip : for everybody knows that 
 Mrs. Townsend is reporter on this paper for the social 
 news, and yet she is received in good society. But 
 that which stirs the furies of my mental elements, is 
 that this article was an attempt on Mrs. Townsend's 
 part to show to Mrs. Kent the dangerous folly of thus 
 living a deserted wife. I will admit that she's wise 
 in her conclusion, but think she lacks the wit to use 
 her wisdom, for Margaret does not agree with her, and 
 steady opposition merely makes each stronger in her 
 own. I think if all her friends would say to Mar- 
 garet Kent : ' swear that you love your husband, 
 though you sleep to dream of his unfaithfulness, with 
 your head pillowed on his foul disgrace : swear that 
 you love your husband, though each morning you 
 must bathe in memories slimy with his vile, disgusting 
 filth : swear by your then clean honesty that dearer 
 than your God you prize him as a fitting subject in 
 your morning prayer of thanks for food provided by 
 your own sweet toil, and salted with the sweat of 
 your pure brow ; and give him glowing gratitude 
 for turning into wine the sparkling water of his 
 stinking vomit : your sacred duty lies in doing this. 
 And more : when for a kiss he sweetly spits into 
 your face tobacco juice — ' " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 17 
 
 Miss Longstaffe shuts her book with a report : — 
 
 " I beg you, Mr. Charlton, stop ! the stench already 's 
 
 dense enough." 
 Young Charlton answers her, with accent* short : — 
 " Miss Longstaffe, I love Margaret, but feel just like a 
 
 cat, whom that dog, Robert Kent, has driven up a 
 
 friendly pole, to which I cling ! " 
 
 Miss Longstaffe starts to read her book again : — 
 
 " You are a poled-cat, then." 
 
 And Charlton's tone begins another strain : — 
 
 " I beg your pardon if I have become offensive, Miss 
 Longstaffe." 
 
 Miss Longstaffe sternly motions Gladys out; 
 And Gladys goes the longest way about. 
 
 " Then think of this : the more offensiveness you throw on 
 him, the more offensive you yourself become." 
 
 Charlton bows his head; then raises it. 
 
 — His voice seems rising J rom his stomach's pit : — 
 
 "I wish to be despised by you. Now listen: Margaret 
 still clings to Robert Kent by what she calls a love 
 of honor, not a love for him, and she bids fair to 
 sacrifice her entire life to that one selfish sentiment. 
 I have resolved it shall no longer be. She thinks 
 that only death should cancel obligations of the 
 marriage vows, and if to-day she still persists in 
 playing martyr to that thought, I have resolved to 
 take the death of Robert Kent upon my soul, but 
 that once done, I never more can be the lover I have 
 been. I do not wish that Margaret should ever know 
 by whose hand she was freed, and hence I shall 
 evade the law if possible, and go away from her when 
 it is done. She shall have satisfactory proof that 
 Robert Kent is dead, but never need know how he 
 met his fate." 
 
18 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Miss Longstaffe has arisen to her feet, 
 And forced young Charlton down into a seat: — 
 " Margaret will never be divorced from Robert Kent, — 
 but you — you must not do this thing." 
 Gladys enters, staring at her aunt: — 
 
 " Mamma is waiting in the hall, will you please go an 
 errand with her ? It won't take you very long." 
 And Charlton glances back, with look askant: — 
 
 " I'd follow her into the grave to be with her." 
 
 And leaves the room: — 
 
 " What is a pole-cat, auntie, dear ? Is Mr. Charlton 
 one ? " — Is asked of Miss Longstaffe. 
 Nothing yet made the woman deign to laugh: — 
 
 " Sometimes he is. Gladys, prepare the tea. I think 
 that Mrs. Townsend will be in again to see your 
 mother soon." 
 
 With which she leaves her, — A self-made old maid. 
 Gladys is note at ease, — of none afraid: — 
 
 " I wonder what a pole-cat is ! — a pole-cat ! It may be 
 Mrs. Townsend will know why he is a pole-cat ! The 
 trouble is she talks so much herself, that I can't get 
 a chance to say a word. — But I know how I'll do 
 it ! — When she asks, ' Is mamma in ?' I'll answer 
 her, ' No ma'am, she's out with Mr. Charlton ! ' Then, 
 before she has a chance to speak a word, I'll say, 
 1 Miss Longstaffe says he is a pole-cat. What is a 
 pole-cat ?' That's just the way we'll do ! Now 
 she'll come in the door right here, — (opens door) 
 And I will say, 'Why Mrs. Townsend! won't you 
 take a chair ?' Of course she'll say the thing she 
 always does, ' Oh thanks, you dear, delicious, little 
 sweet ! Is mamma in ?', — and I will say, ' No ma'am, 
 she's out with Mr. Charlton, Miss Longstaffe says 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 19 
 
 he is a pole-cat. What is a pole-eat?' That's per- 
 fect. Now again: 'Why Mrs. Townsend ! won't you 
 take a chair? " Oh thanks, you dear, delicious, little 
 sweet ! Is mamma in?' — ' No ma'am, she's out with 
 Mr. Charlton. Miss Longstaffe says he is a pole-cat. 
 What is a pole-cat?' — And now if she would come I 
 could remember everything. (Sits down.) Oh, Mrs. 
 Townsend, Mrs. Townsend, I do, do wish you'd 
 come." 
 
 Her ivish is granted speedily, 
 For Mrs. Townsend enters : 
 
 " You dear, delicious, little sweet ! then you do love to 
 have me come ; and you've been waiting for me and 
 (taking Gladys in her lap she sits down in Gladys' chair) 
 did you get angry with me 'cause I didn't come right 
 back ? Here dearest give me one big kiss ! " 
 
 Gladys, bewildered with swprise, 
 Recalls her cue and, tries to rise : 
 
 " Why, why Mrs. Townsend ! won't you take a chair ? " 
 
 " What, darling ! Have I taken yours ? Well, you'll 
 forgive me, won't you, dear? You are receiving callers 
 all alone, and so of course must keep your dignity. 
 You are too irresi stable ! " 
 
 k ' (I wish you'd ask, 'Is mamma in ? ' ) " 
 
 " And may I stay awhile ? " 
 
 u Yes. Uncle Olney Kent comes in on Tuesday after- 
 noons, and you're a little late, but I don't think he'll 
 mind. Miss Longstaffe says — " 
 
 " You say that Olney Kent comes in on Tuesday after- 
 noons ! Is he the poet, known as ' Mr. Bell ? " 
 
 " Yes ma'am. Miss Longstaffe says — " 
 
 " Then I will learn to-day if he repents his treatment of 
 
20 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 me yet ! I dare say that your pretty mamma is 
 beseiged with gentlemen ? " 
 " Beseiged?" 
 
 " I mean that many gentlemen come here to sec her." 
 " Yes, there do. Miss Longstaffe says — " 
 " Tell me about them dear, who are they all ? " 
 " Oh, there are many of them and I don't remember all 
 the names. There's Uncle Olney Kent and Colonel 
 Weir and Mr. Charlton, Tom Updegraeffe and George 
 — Oh, I forget who they all are." 
 " And so your mamma's in with all of these fine gentle- 
 men ? " 
 " No ma'am, she's out with Mr. Charlton. She says he 
 is a pole-cat — " 
 
 Gladys, hiving got this far, 
 Forgets what she was after 
 And Mrs. Toivnsend passes on 
 With a merry, rippling laughter: — 
 
 " What ! what ! she's fallen out with Charlton ? She 
 says he is a pole-cat ? How she hates him then ! He 
 has told her his intentions regarding Robert Kent. 
 Well, I'll take care that no suspicions fall on me." 
 
 " They're coming now." 
 
 " What ! They're together yet ? " 
 
 A moment's pause — and Margaret enter*, smiling 
 On Charlton, whom she seemed to be reviling:— 
 " Don't 3 r ou know Mr. Charlton, Lilly ? I thought you 
 were acquainted." 
 Margaret asks, and Mrs. Townsend bows 
 To Charlton while her face no smile allows : 
 " I never yet have had the honor of an intimate acquaint- 
 ance. But I've heard much of him ; for let me warn 
 you tha h , your little Gladys, here, is something of a 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 21 
 
 spy between yourself and your adorers. She just 
 now left with me the burden of a secret that concerns 
 you both." 
 Charlton, disgusted with her bold deceit 
 In 'playing they are strangers, speaks : — 
 
 " You say the secret is a burden ! Can't we help you bear 
 it then ? give us some clue. What is it like ? " 
 
 " Gladys compared the substance of it to a- a skunk." 
 
 " No wonder that you quickly tire of such a burden and 
 wish to shift it onto us." 
 
 " You don't believe in bearing other's burdens, then ? " 
 Margaret, disgusted until them both, 
 Withdraws ; and Charlton grows more icroth : 
 
 u Well that depends. We have before us an example in 
 
 a woman burdened with a too vile to name ! 
 
 Good common sense would say to merely drop the 
 thing, as foolishness to longer carry it. What say 
 you, Margaret ? Oh ! " 
 
 u Ah, Charlton, what a wit you have ! Of course you 
 now refer to Margaret being burdened with her hus- 
 band, and I agree with you, he is a , and 
 
 Margaret is really a fool to carry such a burden as he 
 is." 
 
 Gladys speaks : the clouding atmosphere 
 Announces that her thunderstorm, is near : 
 " I wish you'd go ! " 
 
 And Charlton, following the lightning dart, 
 Thunders — to quail the woman s heart : 
 
 u Not one word more. Remember that you are her 
 guest and she her mistress, though she be his wife ; 
 and as her mistress, she should guide herself in being 
 what his wife should be, her husband's honored 
 mistress, and she just said to me that not until her 
 honor leaves, will she leave Robert Kent." 
 
22 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 The clouds seem parted with sunlight, 
 As Margaret illumes the scene :— 
 " My honored duty is to honor him by still acknowledging 
 ' I am his wife.' " 
 
 Another flash from Gladys light* a cloud: 
 " Oh, Mrs. Townsend, I do- do wish you'd go ! " 
 
 Again the storm hangs over like a shroud : 
 " I beg your pardon, but I thought you didn't care for 
 him, since he's deserted you for these six years." 
 Gladyi stern face suddenly grows milder ; 
 And as she leaves the room each step grows wilder:— 
 '* (Oh, I know how to make her go ! ) " 
 Margaret's face seems made of alabaster, 
 As she replies : — 
 '• I do not care for him, but he is still alive — is my child's 
 father, and as the father of my child, I shall acknowl- 
 edge him to be my husband, for the child is witness 
 of a love that only death should violate. Father and 
 mother should be man and wife while both are on 
 this earth." 
 But Mrs. Townsend ivill not be subdued: — 
 " And you consider that the law which grants them a 
 divorce should be repealed ? " 
 
 Margaret seems with a Divinity imbued: — 
 
 " The law should have the power to separate them, but 
 it should not give the right to marry while the other 
 lives." 
 
 Charlton speaks as a philosopher: — 
 " I think the law should have the power to separate them, 
 and that to the guilty one it should not give the right 
 to marry for the second time, but to the one who has 
 not sinned, re-marriage is a question in which con- 
 science should decide." 
 
 And she replies: 
 
THE TRAGEDY OP ERRORS 28 
 
 " Then I'm decided that his death or mine alone can 
 break our marriage chains." 
 
 Grim Charlton shut his Jews so tight they crack, 
 But Mrs. Townsend smiles behind his bad : 
 
 " You're sure it is not pride which makes you shrink from 
 a divorce ? " 
 
 " It is not pride ; for pride would spurn the life which 
 I now lead. How could I be humiliated more than 
 by the fact that Robert Kent is my acknowledged 
 husband ? It is a simple love of honor and respect 
 which I owe to myself for having been, and being, 
 what I am to him : a power which has changed and 
 will change his life to something better than it would 
 have been had he not known the love of Margaret 
 Kent," 
 
 Mrs. Townsend gives his back another smile, 
 And adds, — continuing to beguile : — 
 
 11 You search for honor in humiliation." 
 
 But Charlton whispers, as the light words pass:— 
 
 " (You're balking my scheme now ; you treacherous ass!) 
 We need not argue more. As Margaret believes that 
 only death should stain the sacred purity of marriage 
 vows, the pure humiliation of her martyrdom to that 
 belief reflects her spotless honor." 
 
 The shrewd woman fears future questions whether 
 She and Charlton ever schemed together: — 
 
 " It's strange that you should talk like this, when 
 evidently you would gladly take her for your wife if 
 she was free." 
 
 Margaret looks as, — with a bound — 
 A stag might look back at a hound : — 
 
 " Do not again insult the love of Roger Charlton and 
 myself ! " 
 
24 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Gladys enters, leading Miss Longstaffe; 
 And Mrs. Townsend, turning at the sound, 
 Attempts to lick her hand— as might a hound: — 
 
 " A very pleasant evening Miss Longstaffe ! " 
 
 Miss Longstaffe, taking with a sweeping glance 
 The situation, sees at once her chance : — 
 
 " I hardly think you think so. Mr. Charlton, will you 
 sing for us ? Choose any of your songs : it doesn't 
 matter which." 
 
 She takes her instrument — a violin — 
 And Margaret the piano: — they begin: — 
 
 " Suppose I give you one entitled ' The Untold Secret of 
 a Gossip-Monger ? ' " 
 
 Again disgusted, Margaret leaves the room. 
 The evening shadows darken to a gloom. 
 " I don't know it. Please sing, ' I stood on the Bridge 
 
 at Midnight, while ' "— 
 " I'll sing 1 1 Stood on Ceremony, while she stood on toe, 
 for I was too polite to say, I wish that you would go.' " 
 
 He looks at Mrs. Townsend with a glare. 
 
 She lightly laughs; but meets him with a stare: — 
 " I think it time that I am moving on. Good afternoon! " 
 " Good-night! " 
 
 And Mrs. Townsend leaves the room. 
 
 " I must say, Mr. Charlton, that I think your hint was 
 rather coarse." 
 
 u When she was coarse, why should it have been other- 
 wise?" 
 
 " If left with me it would have been — " 
 
 " Refined upon your violin, till it became invisible! " 
 
 Margaret enters, with cm injured air, 
 Expecting to see Mrs. Townsend there. 
 '•' She raises in me all the furies of a female mind. She 
 asks for facts which fret me, and gives those truths 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 25 
 
 which gall me. She feels herself above me, but one 
 can see the stilts on which she walks, for she is a 
 reporter in disguise, and makes her cash in specula- 
 tive gossip, while I make mine in speculative poetry. 
 But after all, it is a question which the world desires 
 the most. I half believe that if we get to heaven, 
 she will be in more demand than I." 
 Margaret settles in the sofas furs, 
 And Gladys comes and lays a hand in hers: — 
 
 u And do you think I will be wanted there, mamma? " 
 
 " Yes, darling, for the guardian of my conscience. I can 
 hold my temper if I merely look at you. Yet it's 
 my jealousy that is excited: for her occupation 
 carries her into society, while I must sit alone here 
 evening after evening to compose my fifteen dollar 
 sonnets." 
 Charlton comes and sits down by her side, 
 And loving Gladys hugs him like a bride: — 
 
 " A sonnet ought to bring you fifty dollars, Margaret ! " 
 
 " I wish you were an editor, for never did we need the 
 money more than now. Our European trip with you 
 had nearly ruined us, and fitting up these rooms has 
 quite completed it. Miss Longstaffe's pictures ought 
 to sell. She now has two or three at Bernhart's 
 which really should take the eye of connoisseurs." 
 
 " At Bernhart's ! Ah ! Why not display them at ' The 
 Fair ? ' They might ' take ' well." 
 
 " I'd like to see them take a farewell : we need the money 
 now." 
 
 " I think I'll take my farewell, with hearty wishes for 
 their wellfare. I'd like to be excused from tea. By 
 Time's immortal age ! it's getting late. Come, I'll 
 be off ! " 
 
26 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Well, come in often." 
 
 '* Can I come oftener when I come oftenest now ? " 
 
 " Cannot the best be bettered ? " 
 
 " The best bread can be buttered ? " 
 
 " But see if you cannot be better bred, and not resist my 
 
 hospitality. Good-night ! " 
 " Good-night your Wittiness ! Here Gladys, one last 
 kiss!" 
 
 Miss Longstaffe has been 'plunged in painful thought, 
 
 A state which Charlton's threat toward Kent had wrought; — 
 
 She rises in a half -uncertain way, 
 
 As if not yet decided what to say : — 
 
 " Mr. Charlton ! — " 
 
 " Ye-es?" 
 
 " Well, never mind. Good -night ! " 
 Charlton gives one lingering look around, 
 Then sadly bends his sight toward the ground : — 
 " Good-night." 
 Gladys notes the sadness of his eye, 
 And follows him when he has passed her by. 
 When both have gone Miss Longstaffe' s voice begins 
 As though her every nerve was pricked with pins: — 
 " I dislike them all, and Charlton in particular, who now 
 willbuy my pictures, and on whose charity we'll live 
 for months to come. How could you give that hint? " 
 " 'Twas easier to give that single hint than write a poem 
 full of them, and probably more lucrative. We're 
 suffering from poverty, he is immensely rich, and he 
 enjoys the giving more than we do the receiving it. 
 Nor is it charity ; because we give the pictures, which 
 are fully worth all we receive for them. We'll never 
 take a penny which we do not earn." 
 " But when you gave that hint, where was your pride?" 
 " Invested in the future lucrative returns." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 27 
 
 " Your pride should be invested in yourself." 
 
 " My head's not thick enough to keep it in. All my 
 emotions, thoughts, and sentiments escape in spite 
 of me." 
 
 " But you should check them, Margaret." 
 
 " How? Check them ay phrenologists would do, by 
 labeling every faculty, and learning in explicit terms 
 its use, its quantity and quality, with recipes for 
 mixing faculties in order to make money, friends, 
 honor, love, or anything desired ? I hate such 
 method in one's madness. Give me Nature's orderly 
 
 confusion!' 
 
 " And do you think it always ends in harmony?" 
 Some one is softly tapping at the door. 
 Miss Longstaffe quickly rises, but before 
 
 She opens, /raits for Margaret's reply; 
 
 And Margaret answers, — with a weary sigh: — 
 
 " Let my death answer you." 
 
 A fine old man, with nearly snow-white hair, 
 Has entered. Miss Longstaffe has gone. 
 
 " Oh, Uncle Olney ! I had feared that you would not 
 
 come in this afternoon." 
 " I came not in, yet I am in. 'Canst fathom that?' " 
 " I cannot with my senses. No." 
 *' Coming to your door awhile ago, I heard so many 
 
 voices that I crept away; but found I couldn't bear 
 
 the disappointment of not seeing you, and so have 
 
 come again. Are you alone?" 
 " I think so. All the company and Miss Longstaffe 
 
 have gone." 
 
 She draws a large armchair up to the fire, 
 And there invites the somewhat feeble sire. 
 
 " Now that I'm getting old, I sometimes think that 
 
28 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Providence provides for me when I cannot; for I 
 have tried to find you thus alone, and failed. Yes, 
 let me sit down by the fire, for I am feeble, and have 
 not recovered from my sickness yet. Margaret, we 
 have had many secret confidences in the past, but 
 I now wish to tell you something which before I have 
 not had the heart to do. Come, sit by me, and let 
 me hold your hand." 
 
 Margaret draws a stool up to his feet, 
 And sweetly settles on the humble seat. 
 
 " Margaret, can you imagine that a man like me, regarded 
 
 as a confirmed bachelor, could love? " 
 She glances up at him with childish face : — 
 " Oh, dear, you must not speak like this. You know my 
 
 situation. We can be the warmest friends, and you 
 
 have always been to me the dearest one, but do not 
 
 speak of love." 
 
 And lie replies, with yet unhardened grace: — 
 
 " You quite misunderstand me, Margaret. I will explain 
 
 by saying that I am no bachelor." 
 " I always thought you an unmarried man! " 
 11 And so I am." 
 11 If you are not a bachelor, nor a married man, what are 
 
 you then in this respect?" 
 u Simply an unmarried man." 
 " Then I should say you were a bachelor! " 
 " I dropped that title when I married." 
 •' You said you were unmarried, though! " 
 " My marriage was undone, and I thereby unmarried." 
 " Oh, dear, I might have thought of that! Is she alive 
 
 or dead?" 
 ,; I just heard, — through this letter, — that she has been 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 29 
 
 dead for some time past. When many years had 
 flown above our married life, she had another love, 
 and in that way divorced herself from me: for when 
 the sacredness of marriage is polluted, every bond of 
 God is cleft in twain." 
 " But were you ever legally divorced from her? " 
 " Yes: let no man join what God hath put asunder." 
 " What do you think of my position, then? " 
 "Published in the daily Chronicle of yesterday, I saw an 
 article, connecting you with Roger Charlton, which 
 caused my watery blood to boil as it had never done 
 for years before; and that it was which drove me 
 here to talk with you, and as your truest friend, 
 who seeks alone your welfare, to ascertain the views 
 you hold upon this subject, and to give you mine: 
 and then, if you should see as I now do, I ask you, 
 Margaret, to break your present chains, and link 
 your future happiness to mine. 
 " I have my grand old country home ; but you have not 
 a home at all. My life is lonely ; yours can be but 
 little else. As you now stand, the dangers from these 
 untried youths surround ; but if with me, the long 
 tried friendship of an older mind would always be 
 around, and your sweet child would have a Paradise 
 of Nature's purity surrounding her. I think I could 
 supply your every want. My literary works have 
 always lacked a central figure on which they could 
 concentrate their power and with the moderate fame 
 which I already have, I think I could exalt you by 
 my love and poetry to earthly immortality. 'Tis not 
 conceit which makes me come before these youths 
 whose greener charms make pallid my old age, but 
 
30 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 that I think my love could give to you more happiness 
 than theirs. (Mrs. Townsend has not gone as yet, and 
 at the door takes what her ears can get.) But whether 
 you become my wife or not, one half my fortune I 
 bequeath to you. (Having heard what she desires, the 
 woman at the door retires.) Now let me first convince 
 your reason that your present life is guided by mis- 
 taken views of right and wrong and then I'll leave 
 you free to choose your future lot." 
 
 Margaret's breast has seemed to be afire : 
 
 Her words like smoke now rise toward the sire: — 
 " If I, this very day was free, your arms could be my 
 heaven's boundary ; for if I ever longed for freedom 
 it was but a passing sigh for rest. But having heard 
 me say repeatedly — that as I am, so must I be — know- 
 ing, that conscientiously, I cannot change my present 
 life — how can you be so cruel as to say to me — such 
 words as these ? Do not produce your arguments. 
 / am, till death, the wife of Robert Kent." 
 
 Suddenly is heard a knocking, 
 
 The quick ear of Silence shocking. 
 
 Miss Longstaffe opens the door, 
 
 And again is seen no more. 
 
 " Why, Alex, my dear boy ! What brings you here ? 
 But wait. Allow me, Mrs. Kent, to introduce to you 
 my nephew, Dr. Walton, just arrived from Philadel- 
 phia. Alex, Mrs. Kent of whom you've heard me 
 speak so frequently." 
 
 Mrs. Towmend is again seen to appear. 
 Walton and Margaret seem very queer. 
 
 " Excuse me, Mrs. Kent, if I am too abrupt. But it was 
 necessary I should see my Uncle just as soon as 
 possible, and, entering your house, I met a woman 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 31 
 
 at the door, who said she was a nurse from Bellevue 
 Hospital, and that she'd brought a message for my 
 Uncle. — Here it is." 
 
 7 he old man takes it with suspicious looks: — 
 
 " It bears a stamp of life and death, — a hospital I" 
 
 Young Walton's movements have too many crooks, 
 
 And Margaret is embarrassed with this man. 
 
 When their eyes met, — a momentary thing, 
 
 It startled both, as such tilings only can 
 
 When thoughts take flight on Fascinations wing. 
 " Pardon me, Mrs. Kent! Your heel is grinding in an 
 envelope. Permit that I should pick the letter up 
 for you. (He hands the letter from which Kent's 
 address Charlton had copied. — Margaret's thoughts 
 digress from Walton, — who seems an Ideal, — to Robert 
 Kent, ivho seems to her too real. — ) Uncle is in a 
 faint! Will you assist me please? It's strange he 
 should have fainted here. Look out! You're faint- 
 ing, too!" 
 
 For Margaret is passing through 
 States when we neither wake nor sleep, — 
 Dangling in space betwixt the two, — 
 When now we soar; — and now we creep. 
 At last she finds herself awake: — 
 
 " Look at your L^ncle, please." 
 
 But Walton, seemingly, his turn must take: — 
 
 " Why, I forgot about his being in a faint! What could 
 
 have brought it on?" 
 " That message lying there, of course." 
 " It's strange, but I forgot about my message, too!" 
 " It's strange, but you're forgetting all about yourself." 
 
 Walton aivakes himself at last, 
 And blushes for the moment past: — 
 
 " Come, he must need attention ! Quick ! Glance at 
 
32 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 the message, please, and tell me what it is. It may 
 require an answer before he revives. I'll soon revive 
 him, though, with this ammonia." 
 " According to this message, his wife has been, for ten 
 years past, the best and noblest nurse in Bellevue 
 Hospital, but now is lying on her death-bed suffering 
 in the horrid agonies of smallpox. She sends to him 
 these words: 'I am descending into Hell! Have 
 you forgiven? Answer me.' " 
 u I understand! The eternal misery of a dying woman 
 turns upon a word from him. A second may extend 
 into Eternity. — He moves his lips! Please help me, 
 Mrs. Kent, to catch the word. Bend closer: — listen 
 now." 
 
 In eagerness to catch the word 
 
 Their cheeks touch: Margaret's voice is heard, — 
 
 As over her love' s passions swell, — 
 
 '* ' I am descending into Hell! ' " 
 
 Walton, construing her intent, 
 Knows not she thinks of Robert Kent, 
 And says, — supposing that her strife 
 Was to gain pardon for the wife, — 
 
 '• Well imitated. He has answered, ' No. 1 " 
 Mrs. Townsend has crept far into the room, 
 And site now makes herself apparent through the gloom: — 
 
 " Ah, Margaret! Have you made another friend f " 
 
 " Oh — I beg your pardon! We — you — I didn't notice it 
 was getting dark. I'll light the gas." 
 
 ,; Kisses are quite enough to light a fireside with." 
 
 Margaret, however, lights the gas, 
 
 As Walton's hand pours three drops in a glass: — 
 
 " There madam, is our apology. We were reviving Uncle 
 from a faint." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 33 
 
 " Rather a faint apology! " 
 
 " Come Uncle, out into the hall. A breath of fresh air 
 
 will be good for you." 
 ''.Thanks, Alex. I would like to lean on Margaret, if 
 
 she will permit. My mind needs her support." 
 
 Mrs, T grasps Walton by the arm. 
 
 The others pass. — She takes no art to charm. 
 " I do not need an introduction, Sir." 
 11 If you don't need one, surely I do not." 
 
 And Walton turns himself away, 
 But she resumes without delay: — 
 
 " Allow me to introduce you to your mother, please." 
 
 " Mother! Give me her name to hang my curses on! " 
 
 "Why curse at her?" 
 
 " Because she did a thing the meanest beast would never 
 do. She gave me birth, and then deserted me." 
 
 " i" am your mother." 
 
 " Damn you, then! " 
 
 " And damn your Uncle for deserting me." 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " I mean that I was once your Uncle's wife. That 
 message was from me. I wished to know if he 
 repented yet of his divorce from me. As he does not, 
 I shall proceed to even my account with him. I — I 
 am your mother and your Uncle's wife." 
 
 " Vile dam ! And who am I ? " 
 
 " Ha! don't you know yourself ? " 
 
 " I only know what Uncle told me: that one bitter night 
 some beastly woman left me at his door, a sucking 
 babe." 
 
 " Did he not know that woman was myself ? " 
 
34 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " I think he would have killed you if he did. You say 
 you were his wife ! Is he my father, then?" 
 
 "No sir, you are a bastard son." 
 
 " A bastard! I could kill you and my father for the 
 love which formed my soul." 
 
 " Don't speak so loudly. You'll be overheard. Do you 
 desire to know that your true name is ' Robert Olney 
 Kent,' the same one which your Uncle bears ? You 
 legally were christened that before I left you at his 
 door. Whatever he has called you since is incorrect, 
 because it 's not your legal name. Do you know 
 what the name of ' Robert Kent ' implies ? ' " 
 
 " The forfeiture of all I now possess! " 
 
 " To gain one-half your Uncle's fortune, and a wife." 
 
 "Can your tongue be connected with your brain ? " 
 
 " My mind is. Listen: as your Uncle has not known 
 my whereabouts, this revelation has been kept until 
 to-day, because the proper time had not arrived." 
 
 " And why not until now ? " 
 
 " I have just ascertained that I am not forgiven by your 
 Uncle for my hot offense to him when I loved some- 
 one else, and I shall now begin my schemes to get 
 control of half his fortune, which is willed to 
 Margaret, and to get you a wife, if, as a wife, you can 
 love Margaret Kent." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Her husband's name is Robert Olney Kent, and yours 
 is?" 
 
 " Robert Olney Kent ! " 
 
 " Hence Margaret's marriage paper names you as her 
 legal husband ; therefore Margaret is — " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 35 
 
 " My wife ? " 
 
 " By all the laws of man. Do you love her ? " 
 
 " Love her ! love her ? I've never met her but this once, 
 yet all my soul is in the passion of a man who kills 
 himself or has what he desires ! " 
 
 " Then hear me and obey. Conceal this secret of your 
 birth, for you cannot prove anything alone. Resume 
 your old name, ' Dr. Walton,' and win the love of 
 Margaret under it until I say the proper time has 
 come — and then, rely on me to prove that Margaret 
 is your wife. Remember me. (Gives him her card.) 
 And you, sir, are to be, ' Dr. Walton.' — Go. 
 
 Walton starts, hut calls back from side hall: 
 
 11 But is her other husband dead ? " 
 
 Miss Longstaffe enters as the accents fall — 
 
 " Yes, Margaret's Robert Kent is dead {Walton goes his 
 way, and she goes on to say — ) or soon will be (is 
 
 confronted by Miss L ; Mis. T seems entering 
 
 Hell,) if Roger Charlton's manner tells the truth ! " 
 
 Miss Longstaffe slowly repeals — '' Then Robert Kent is 
 dead — or soon will be — " 
 
 Her home-thrust Mrs. Townsend meets — " ' If Roger 
 Charlton's manner tells the truth ! ' " 
 
 But Miss Longstaffe beats no retreats — "If Mrs. Town- 
 send 1 s manner tells the truth." 
 
 — II — 
 
 The scene is shifted to another room, 
 Where Walton, Margaret and Olney Kent 
 Are moving tl trough the gloom. 
 
 Pale Margaret speak*:— 
 
36 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " And yon insist that this repentant woman is not still 
 your wife, though in the eyes of law you are divorced 
 from her ? What constitutes a marriage ? Verbal 
 laws?" 
 
 Walton sees a chance to stake his claim : — 
 " Observation of the legal forms of marriage — " 
 
 But Margaret frustrates his secret aim : — 
 
 " In this day it's thought by many that a marriage does 
 consist in observation of the legal forms, while that 
 which truly constitutes the soul of marriage they do 
 not regard as such." 
 Walton no longer views her as his wife. 
 The Uncle suddenly shows signs of life : — 
 
 " Then listen, Margaret. In time another man stole in 
 upon me and obtained her love, and I considered her 
 divorced from me the moment that she gave it him; 
 and when he ruined her, I held that they were mar- 
 ried, though no legal form had been observed. For 
 if the law would recognize such acts, alone, as valid 
 marriages, there would be much less sinning in the 
 world, as it would give the woman poiver to bind the 
 man for life. But now she must bear all the blame 
 and suffering while the man goes free." 
 
 Margaret, with good taste, retires 
 
 And Walton, wrapped in thought, enquires — 
 
 " Is that act what does constitute a marriage, then ? " 
 
 The old man weighted down with age, 
 
 Rises in a petty rage: — 
 " It is my idea of what the law should recognize as mar- 
 riage, and bind the parties afterward if they're not 
 bound before. Now men can ruin women and be 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 37 
 
 thought respectable ; but I think that the law should 
 give that woman power to make that man bear his — 
 the greater— share of all the blame, and it should 
 give the woman power to use, at her discretion, every 
 right a wife should have." 
 Walton s voice assumes a careless langour: — 
 " Why doesn't our laws protect a woman's rights ? " 
 
 And Margaret enters, exclaiming with anger, 
 " That question brings the Politician's nightmare on ! " 
 
 — Ill — 
 
 Into the gloom drifts William Pratt's garret, 
 
 Where Pratt is seen; seeming a man to merit 
 
 A better home. His sick child is in bed. 
 
 Charlton and Mrs. Townsend enter — he is by her led. 
 " I tell you, William Pratt, I'm tired of living this 
 apparently unmarried life, and being known as 
 1 Widow Townsend! ' You don't exert yourself .enough 
 to be acknowledged as my husband, and my dignity 
 and reputation are at stake each time I visit you. 
 That starving child will never be acknowledged as 
 my own, nor will you ever have one cent more from 
 my purse. Look at your starving child ! Now, if 
 you value her life at the price of food, go, pawn 
 that ring, and purchase what she needs. There ! 
 act before you lose the action, sir. — Exactly ! as you 
 always do ! I'll tell you for the last one-hundreth 
 time, when you lack strength to do a thing, accept 
 the strength which comes to you. That impulse, 
 taken, would have made you strong ; but turned away 
 it took its strength with it. Come now, see here ! 
 
38 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 You promised your first wife never to part with this — 
 her wedding ring. Well now, she's dead. Now well, 
 she's dust. Admitted : your promise is to a clod of 
 dust. All bosh — these foolish sentiments of keeping 
 promises ! " 
 
 Pratt shows himself to be her better half — 
 
 " She is not dead, or else religion tells a lie." 
 She greets his answer with a sneering laugh: — 
 
 " Her bones are getting rank, and the loud smell begins 
 to rankle, sir. But what are you to eat? That's right! 
 get down there on your knees and order breakfast ; 
 but 'twould be well to eat what meat you can in 
 dreams to-night, then if the ' Providence ' to which 
 you pray should fail to fill your orders, to-morrow's 
 breakfast ' bill of fare ' may be : Cold Dreams and 
 Mutton Tallow; Mashed Potato Skins. Your dinner 
 could be : Cat-tail Soup. Your supper : Cat's Head, 
 cold. Your — " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean, Sir William Pratt, that you will have to cook 
 the cat or starve to death. You've eaten everything 
 you have to eat except the cat ; you've spent your 
 every cent, and you will never have another one from 
 me ; you've not a friend of whom you could intend 
 to borrow and not beg — and you would rather starve 
 than beg. Your sickness and this cursed strike have 
 paralysed the hands which earned you your support ; 
 you have refused to pawn your ring, and you have 
 nothing else to pawn : you've lived for two days now 
 without a thing to eat, and on this diet you will 
 surely starve — Toby ! come here. I'll gut you now, 
 and let you parboil over night." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 39 
 
 " Hold ! — but I cannot pawn this ring." 
 
 " Cannot is not will not, sir ! " 
 
 " I will not pawn this ring." 
 
 u Strength can be gained upon an empty stomach, sir." 
 
 " Yes, my employer's strength was gained upon my empty 
 stomach, but he too will suffer for the wrong as well 
 as I. We poor men are awaking to our rights, and 
 when our waking dreams are over (takes a bomb from 
 secret closet) — we will settle down to cold realities. 
 The cry of every poor man's rights and wrongs shall 
 then be heard. Though it require a bomb-shell for 
 a trumpet, our voices shall be heard." 
 
 While he replaces bomb in closet, 
 Mrs. Toivnsend speaks to Charlton: — 
 
 " (I think I've got him desperate enough. Proceed.)" 
 
 Charlton from the shades advances: — 
 
 " Your name is Pratt, sir, I believe." 
 
 Pratt fires at him suspicious glances: — 
 
 " The same. And what is yours ?" 
 
 Charlton sits down in a chair: — 
 
 " You will be pleased to know ; and therefore ' business 
 before pleasure', sir. I understand that you and 
 Robert Kent are bitter enemies ; although I don't 
 know what the trouble is ! " 
 Pratt towers higher in the air: — 
 
 " I've sworn to kill him if we ever meet ! My life was 
 ruined through false accusations he has made." 
 
 " Accusing you of what ? " 
 
 " Untrue relations with his wife." 
 
 " Then they were false. This letter states my business 
 with you." 
 
40 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Your business is mysterious, and I can't see to solve it 
 by this candlelight." 
 
 " This is a useful ornament." 
 
 " The lamp is empty, lad, and we have no oil in the 
 house." 
 
 " Well, surely you have gas ! " 
 
 u Gas ! There is no gas in the house." 
 
 " My sense of smell deceives me then. I am acquainted 
 with your wife. (To Mrs. Townsend.) Will you take 
 my pocketbook and purchase comforts for that 
 shivering child ? I shall expect you back immedi- 
 ately. Go." 
 Pratt looks a moment at his first wife's ring, 
 And tighter to it he is seen to ding: — 
 
 " One moment. Sir, I wish to ask you while you're in 
 the mood, with my right hand your sole security, 
 will you lend me enough to pay my room rent, which 
 is two months overdue ? I am afraid my child and 
 I will be turned out into the street if it is not paid 
 soon." 
 
 " I will attend to it before I go away, but in the mean- 
 time, I wish you to read that letter, sir." 
 
 " Then I must find some place where it is light enough, 
 for this is my last candle, and it even now is sputter- 
 ing in the stick." 
 Charlton aslcs of Mrs. T , 
 
 " He is a man of honor, is he not ? " 
 And she answers sneeringly : — 
 
 " Humph ! he is a man of sentiment" 
 
 " Enough ! I trust him then. Go, read it where you 
 will." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 41 
 
 Pratt exist*. Mrs. T decides, — 
 
 u And I will go and get the comforters." 
 
 Behind a chimney in the gloom she hides. 
 
 The candle gives one sputter in the stick, 
 
 And burns no more ; having consumed its wick. 
 " You poor old starving cat ! Is it a pleasure to sit there 
 and mew at me ? ( Charlton picks it up.) Poor thing, 
 you must be starving here. It might be kindness if 
 I killed you now ! Bat it is said that every life has 
 some especial use in Providence, and I should feel 
 that it was wrong to take your life unless I knew you 
 had been useful. With that knowledge I could kill 
 you conscientiously." 
 
 Mrs. T , uith a decided mind, 
 
 Steps from the chimney she has hid behind:— 
 
 " Sorry to trouble you. I'll not be back again." 
 
 " It's no intrusion. Don't apologize." 
 
 " Apologize ! Intrusion ! Well, who thought it such ?" 
 
 " I thought that you thought that I thought that you 
 
 thought you were intruding." 
 " No sir. I merely came to say that I shall never come 
 
 again to live with William Pratt, and I resign all 
 
 partnership connecting me with the impending crime 
 
 of murdering Robert Kent." 
 " You kindly volunteered assistance, and I thank you for 
 
 what you have done. I shall proceed to carry out 
 
 your part myself." 
 
 " Miss Longstaffe knows that we are both together in the 
 
 scheme." 
 " I told her my intentions : you were not then in my 
 
 thoughts." 
 
42 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " She found me out herself. But do you still persist in 
 saying you will never marry Margaret when she is 
 free ? " 
 " A fool could answer that as well as I." 
 " Remember this : if ever you seek such a thing, I'll let 
 
 her know who murdered Robert Kent." 
 " And if you hold your tongue till then she'll never know. 
 (Mrs. Townsend starting to go out, Charlton quickly 
 wheels himself about.) You are the first woman I 
 have ever failed to trust ! — Please give me back my 
 purse before you go." 
 " I think I must have dropped it down below ! " 
 " If this is an equivalent, I wish to trade it for the purse." 
 " And what is the equivalent you wish to give ? " 
 " I'll give a pound of flesh from either arm if you will 
 
 give me back my pocketbook." 
 " What nonsense ! " 
 " 1 will do it." 
 
 " I would like to see you do it. — Here's the purse." 
 " Then you shall see me do it. (lights a match, with — ) 
 Here's the cat." 
 
 Mrs. Townsend, in chagrin, 
 Shoivs her skull was not too thin: — 
 " The purse is empty, sir." 
 Charlton quickly opens it, 
 While, a match spark still is lit: — 
 
 " The lining holds ten thousand dollars on a check I 
 — My God ! what apparition's that ? " 
 Child advances in night-robe, with — 
 
 " Nellie ! Nellie ! ! Nellie ! ! ! " 
 
 Falls in Charlton s arms; — he strikes another match. 
 The light reveals the features of the child, 
 Who with Death's agony is nearly wild:— 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 43 
 
 11 And is this Death ? We men call Death a sleep, and 
 in one moment more I'll close these lids for their 
 eternal slumber, but the soul — O God ! — release it — 
 do not let it struggle so ! 'Tis gone — poor body, 
 sleep. — Ah, Mrs. Townsend, think of Robert Kent ! 
 Well might he envy such a death as this. The child's 
 last earthly vision was her heavenly — ? " 
 
 ' l Sister's!" 
 
 " — face. I wish that Kent's last earthly vision could 
 be Margaret's. That she would kneel before him with 
 her face as I have sometimes seen ; as though damp 
 chills were freezing in her back, while in her breast 
 burned such dry fever that her heart, between the 
 two, seemed twisted out of joint. At such times would 
 the tender fibres of her face be drawn so tightly that 
 it seemed as though the flesh would crack, and he, 
 the demon who could draw them so, smiled on, 
 unmindful of the harsh contortions which his smiling 
 made. I say, it would be well if his last sight of 
 earth could be this ghastly congregation of its 
 elements — the face of Margaret by his spirit breathed 
 upon ; for if he strolled into Eternity from such a 
 sight as this, his soul might soften till he realized he 
 was in Hell. But having been so long there while on 
 earth, if now the earth is merely drawn away, I fear 
 the change will be so slight, he will not notice it." 
 
 (Charlton 7'ises, dropping the dead child 
 Unconsciously. Mrs. Townsend's voice is mild — ) 
 
 11 And is it possible you will not want his wife when he 
 is dead ? " 
 
 A 11 his vigor seems to die 
 As he makes the sad reply: — 
 
44 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " As I have always said : when 'Robert Kent is dead, I 
 shall leave Margaret, and, if possible, evade the law, 
 simply because I do not wish that she should ever 
 know how his death came to him. She must be led 
 to think it was a natural one. Until you told me of 
 the enmity 'tween Pratt and Robert Kent, I thought 
 that I would go to South America, but now, if Pratt 
 will go, I think that not one detail of the scheme 
 could be much better planned for gaining Margaret's 
 future happiness, and if Pratt, voluntarily, will fight 
 the duel to whichyou say Kent once challenged him, 
 I see no reason why his difficulty should not settle 
 Margaret's as well." 
 
 " But you love Margaret, do you not?" 
 She notes his voice with melancholy Jill: — 
 
 " I have not yet decided what constitutes true love of 
 sex for sex." 
 
 Young Charlton pauses, — and the ivorld seems still. 
 ***** 
 
 Pratt entering like a drunken man, 
 In darkness on the dead child ran, 
 But stumbled on, — apparently 
 Not thinking what the form might he: — 
 
 " I have been trying to decide. The more I think of it, 
 the less I think of it." 
 
 Charlton offers him a chair: — 
 
 " You know the stipulated sum for proof that Robert 
 Kent has died, and if you wish to fight the duel to 
 which he once challenged you, we'll sign these papers, 
 and — it rests with you." 
 Pratt's wrongs seem more than he can bear: — 
 
 " I am a desperate man, and I could do a desperate 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 4 5 
 
 thing, but I cannot desert my wife and child, as I 
 should have to do in case I went to South America. " 
 C narlton forces him to sit: — 
 
 " I do not wish to seem cold-blooded, yet I am by nature 
 blunt when telling an unpleasant truth. Your wife, 
 sir, has deserted you : your child — " 
 
 Pratt jumps as if he had been hit: — 
 
 " My wife deserted me! God be — " 
 
 " We have no time for sentiment. Be reconciled as 
 
 quickly as you can." 
 " God be thanked. I'm reconciled." 
 11 You've my congratulations. But your child — " 
 "Don't say it, lad!" 
 "What?" 
 " That she has taken her away! " 
 
 Again he offers Pratt a chair:— 
 
 " No, she has not." 
 
 Pratt sinks into it with despair: — 
 " I'm on this earth only because my child is here, for 
 
 without her I should not care to live, and / would 
 
 suicide if she should die." 
 
 He rises, starting toward the bed. 
 Charlton grasps him near the head : — 
 
 " Here! here! No time for kisses now. ' Business before — ' " 
 
 Pratt sits again: — 
 
 *.' I have been very sick, and can earn nothing yet at 
 work. Shall I sit feebly by and day by day see my 
 child starve, when now to do this thing would give 
 her everything she needs for years to come? But if 
 I go away, who will take care of her? " 
 
 "I. (Charlton glances behind him.) She will not want 
 for anything." 
 
46 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Mrs. T is weeping with a vim. 
 
 "What noise is that?" 
 
 " A storm is coming on. It is the wailing of the wind." 
 Pratt asks the young solicitor : — 
 
 " How will I know that I can trust yon, sir ?" 
 And Charlton makes this his reply : — 
 
 " By this check for ten thousand dollars, which will be 
 paid to-night, if you agree to furnish satisfactory 
 proof that Robert Kent no longer lives upon this 
 earth. Knowing you had a wife and child, and likely 
 some pet creatures which might require my care, I've 
 put this promise in these papers, thinking it would 
 cover everything : — ' To whatever living thing which 
 you now have, I will give everything which love can 
 give till you return.' And so to prove my own good 
 faith, I will now pay to you the stipulated sum, and 
 you, to prove your own, must leave the child with me 
 until delivery of the proof to one whom I have 
 herein named." 
 
 Mrs. Townsend is still wailing 
 Over her dead child ; no failing 
 In a woman once a mother, 
 Can all love for her child smother. 
 
 " For my child's sake, I'll do it, sir." 
 
 " Then as 'tis herein written, if I pay ten thousand 
 dollars, you relinquish every claim on every living 
 thing which you now have, and give me sole posses- 
 sion from this hour until you have delivered to a 
 party herein named the satisfactory proof that Robert 
 Kent no longer lives upon this earth : Understanding, 
 that for the proof which you deliver, I will return 
 whatever this agreement places in my care, which in 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 47 
 
 the meantime will receive more than your love could 
 give if you remained at home. Is it a bargain ? " 
 
 Still that piteous wail is heard ; 
 Making hollow Pratt's stem icord, — 
 
 " For my child's sake, I'll do it, sir." 
 
 " Then go and get a light, that we may sign these papers 
 now. (Charlton, stumbling 'gainst the child, turns with 
 every action wild.) No, never mind, I've two wax 
 matches here." 
 
 " You can't write much by just two matches, sir." 
 
 " We need write nothing but our names. Already every- 
 thing is written in the terms which we have made. 
 (lights a match.) This paper is in duplicate. Please 
 read it while the first match burns." 
 
 He glances at the dead child's form, 
 
 And motions to a calm the storm. 
 
 Pratt reads:— His sight begins to blur: — 
 
 " For my child's sake I'll do it, sir." 
 
 And with a flash the match goes out, 
 The instant Pratt has turned about. 
 
 " Here is a fountain pen. Please sign your name while 
 this, the last match, burns. — Where are you going, 
 sir ? " 
 
 " I have not strength to sign it till I see her pleading 
 face ! " 
 
 " No time for sentiment. No light for seeing faces now. 
 Sit down and take the pen before I light this match, 
 which is the last — the only one I have." 
 
 Lights it. — Pratt signs, and tnes to start 
 Toward the bed. — Charlton s hands part: — 
 
 " One moment, sir ! I said you would be pleased to know 
 my name." 
 
48 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 A nd Charlton shins his signature. 
 
 " What ! Roger Charlton ! my employer's son? " 
 
 " The same." 
 
 u I am not pleased to know you, lad." 
 
 " If you betray me now, this paper shows you a co-part- 
 ner in the plot." 
 
 " That need not have been said. I am no traitor, sir." 
 
 "The steamer sails for South America at four o'clock 
 to-morrow afternoon. By that time you must cash 
 this check, take out what money you will need, 
 deposit the remainder as you wish, purchase your 
 passage and what clothes you want, and take the 
 boat for South America. Enclosed in this you'll find 
 instructions for locating Robert Kent. Now — string 
 your wits on threads of wisdom, and — begone." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " 'Most anywhere, 's long 's you take the boat to-morrow 
 afternoon." 
 
 " What ! Would you turn me out of my own home ? " 
 
 " This home is not your own. My father, your 
 employer, was the owner of these flats. He has just 
 died and left the property to me. You are two 
 months behind, sir, in your rent, and I must ask 
 you to vacate at once." 
 
 " Why turn me out into the storm for just one night ? " 
 
 " Ten thousand dollars ought to warm you just one night." 
 
 " This check, sir, is not worth one cent to me until it's 
 
 cashed." 
 "Why, my dear friend, I hadn't thought of that! — 
 Here take — Oh, I forgot! My purse is empty. Phew! 
 what shall I do? " 
 u Let me stay here to-night and I won't need a cent." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 49 
 
 " One moment! God — {Extends his arms toward Mrs. 
 
 T , whom, in the dark, Pratt fails to see. — ) Five 
 
 dollars!— Thank you. Take it. Go." 
 
 " What! does God hire you to do this crime? " 
 
 " I settle the account with Him." 
 
 " — But why are you so anxious I should leave this room 
 to-night ? 
 
 " I've just assumed my father's business, and I'm 
 resolved to run the thing on strictly business prin- 
 ciples. This is the first day of another month, your 
 rent remains unpaid, and you must go. I never 
 break a rule in business." 
 
 " Then I will bid my child a long good-bye, and go." 
 
 " Please go without. She must not be disturbed." 
 
 " And why not wake her, lad?" 
 
 u Would you recall her to this earth and all its sufferings, 
 when now she seems so peaceful in her sleep?" 
 Pratt calms himself, and meekly makes reply: — 
 
 "I know the agony of her pains, and when awake she 
 suffers terribly. I'll kiss her only once, and then 
 I'll go." 
 But Charlton stands, and will not let him by: — 
 
 11 Is your parental love a sensual one?" 
 
 " It will be done so softly that — " 
 
 " You must not kiss that child! " 
 
 " / must not kiss my child! What right have you to tell 
 
 me that? " 
 " The right that you have given in this paper. Sir, it 
 
 reads, that you relinquish every claim, and give me 
 
 sole possession from this hour — " 
 " This hour has not yet ended! " 
 " Hark! — the clock is striking, sir." 
 
50 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Pratt leaves, without another word, 
 
 And from the darkness Charlton s voice h heard: — 
 
 " Now Mrs. Townsend, I can almost call the murder done, 
 but it has seemed as though the heavens were against 
 my scheme. A man must feel himself almost a God, 
 before he takes a human life into his hand and moulds 
 its destiny to suit his own designs. Yet so have I 
 now done with Robert Kent. I've placed myself 
 before my God : have deemed my judgment equal 
 to His own, and have despatched the soul of Kent to 
 Hell before its Maker's proper summons came. It 
 
 must not be. Pratt, come . No. I will 
 
 not let the frenzy of a moment undermine the calm 
 deliberation of a month. I'll play between Creator 
 and created : the human tool of Divine Providence. 
 Through Gladys' letter I'll give God a chance to 
 thwart my scheme. But I have firmly put my hand 
 upon the plough, and there will be no vacillation now." 
 
 Again Pratt staggers through the door. 
 
 " What are you back for ? " 
 
 And Charlton drags the child across the floor: — 
 " Anything forgotten, Pratt ?" 
 
 " No, — nothing. But a thought passed over me which 
 made me sicken till I staggered to the ground. 
 Perhaps it was a foolish thought — but, lad, upon your 
 honor, — yes or no, is my child dead ? " 
 Charlton meets him with uplifted head 
 And shoulders back: — 
 " No sir, she is not dead." 
 
 Pratt exits. 
 Charlton s nervous strain Is past. His muscles slack:— 
 11 Have I, or has Religion told a lie ? " 
 
ACT II 
 
 Time brings before our eyes a different scene. 
 Rio Janeiro lies, loith glittering sheen, 
 Far in the night's background : One house is near. 
 A man and woman presently appear: — 
 
 " Florence, I have decided we must leave Rio Janeiro, 
 and I'm so grieved about two things, that I can't 
 tell for which I grieve the most. I'm sorry I can't 
 pay the mortgage interest on our home, and that the 
 whole affair will have to be foreclosed; and yet this 
 weighs but lightiy on my mind when I think you are 
 called upon to bear the crushing disappointment too. 
 Of course, the heaviest must naturally fall on me, 
 but as just said, I have the added weight of thinking 
 you are groaning 'neath the burden just as much as 
 I, who suffer terribly, but please don't let my suffer- 
 ing make you suffer, dear; for mine is mainly caused 
 by thinking of your suffering for me. So, dearest 
 heart, be happy in the happiness of thinking I am 
 happy by your happiness. Now leave me with my 
 thoughts, for when my eye of sense is blinded by 
 the night, I can see clearer mentally, and may dis- 
 cover some way out of our entanglement. — Are you 
 not going, dear? — Please do not cling to me like this! 
 I wish to be alone. — Good-night, my darling! — Now, 
 dear, this kiss must be our last. — Please, Florence, I 
 wish you would leave! — I must use force if you refuse 
 
 (51 ) 
 
52 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 to go. — See now what you have done! you've wrung 
 your hand in mine so much that you have worked 
 your wedding ring from off your finger, and it's fallen 
 on the ground. — No, no, don't poke around for it 
 there in the sand. You'll only bury it. Just step 
 aside and wait till daylight comes. Now you must 
 leave. Again, Good-night! " 
 The woman leaves, and he calls after her, — 
 " I will be with you, dear, in half an hour, at least.'''' 
 
 And then he adds, — 
 " I said ' in half an hour at least ' ; now I will add ' but 
 never at the most.'' Show me a woman whom I cannot 
 dupe ! " 
 A woman enters at the closing word: — 
 
 " I'll show you one ! " 
 
 He starts, and turns to see what he has heard : 
 " Well, woman, you are punctual ! Now prove that you 
 
 are not insane to make in writing an appointment at 
 
 this time of night in such a place as this." 
 " Sir, I wish you to know that I am Mrs. Town send of 
 
 New York." 
 " Ah ha ! — then you are not insane." 
 11 That follows." 
 " Certainly: because you never yet were what you seemed 
 
 to be." 
 " What seems my reason for now being here ? " 
 "That Margaret sent you as a spy." 
 " You will not be deceived in that." 
 " I'm not so sure of it." 
 " You will believe me, though." 
 " Not while I can surmise." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OP ERRORS 53 
 
 ; ' Belief in me will be your ' saving faith.' " 
 
 " Believing in the devil saves no man." 
 
 '* Believe my words : There rise the gallows, sir." 
 
 She points into an open well near by. 
 
 He staggers back, making the quick reply: — 
 
 " To know of it you must have seen it done ! " 
 
 She comes up to him with extended hand: — 
 " One-half the plunder will forever seal my lips." 
 He sums what dignity he can command: — 
 
 " I don't believe your promise would be kept." 
 
 With which she snaps her fingers in his/ace: — 
 " Then you will lose your life through unbelief." 
 A ml he replies as he retires a pace: — 
 
 tl No madam, I do not believe I will." 
 
 She has but one condition in her threat: — 
 '• Unless you have a '' saving faith' in me." 
 But he will not accept salvation yet: — 
 
 kt I'll think it over ; in the meantime, you keep cool. I'm 
 going back to Margaret, if I can get the where-with- 
 all to take me there with all my strategems. Here's 
 the result of my last one — conceived while it was 
 executed. Poor Florence ! It's our wedding ring. — 
 How odd that sounds! Why, it should be 'our wedding 
 rings.'' (Tales off his own.) i Our wedding rings ! ' 
 (Jingles them.) That does sound better ! These two 
 will sell for old gold now, and buy some trinket to 
 present to Margaret. Yet Gladys was the one who 
 sent the invitation to come home. I wonder if I must 
 present it at the door 'fore Margaret will let me in ! 
 And by the way ! It might look better if I had our 
 wedding ring upon my finger when I knocked. I've 
 worn it on my middle toe. I'm superstitious about 
 
54 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 wedding rings ! (takes off his shoe.) I wonder if she 
 loves me yet ! Oh well, no use in speculating over 
 that. She'll have a chance to prove it if she does. — 
 Here is the ring upon the other toe that Margaret 
 gave when Gladys came. The wedding ring was on 
 my finger when she put this after it and said — 
 1 Robert, let this one guard your wedding ring.' 
 Come ! come ! no more of this ! I'll get my shoe and 
 stocking on, and then, — No madam, I cannot believe 
 in you." 
 Again she makes her proposition f till: — 
 
 " Give me one-half the spoils which you have hidden in 
 this well and I will not reveal your crime to anyone. 
 If you refuse, I'll see that you are hung till dead." 
 
 He lights a lantern .'—gives his nose a pull: — 
 " A court trial's better than a lynching mob ! " 
 
 She mocks the sanctimonious priest: — 
 " * Believe, and you are saved.' " 
 " ' Forgive, and I do believe ! ' " 
 
 The imitated prodigal then ceased 
 To be upon the earth — descending in it. 
 She, like the priest, has inspired in a minute, 
 An ignorant, belief 'gainst what is known: — 
 
 " Salvation will not come by faith alone." 
 
 Unlike the priest, she speaks out her true thought, 
 Regarding the belief which has been taught. 
 A man steps slowly from behind a tree, 
 And Mrs. Townsend beckons, — " Come to me." 
 
 " Tell me, Sir William Pratt, having now run a skunk 
 into a well, how can I kill him best ? " 
 
 Pratt sloioly turns around— she hears him say — 
 
 " By burying him." — and moves without delay, 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 55 
 
 Up to a stone which poises on the brink, 
 And ere slow Pratt again has time to think, 
 Rolls it into the well. They both peer down, 
 And she takes hold of Pratt's head In/ the crown: — 
 
 " See him there in the mud ! The stone's on top of him. 
 There's not a sound arising. — Robert Kent is dead." 
 
 But mad Pratt, peering down the well, 
 Seems gazing at the sights of Bell: — 
 
 " Look ! look ! his spirit's coming up ! " 
 
 " It's but the flickering of his lantern on the wall." 
 
 " Do you see any blood upon my hands ? " 
 
 " Your mind is wandering ! " 
 
 Pratt claps his hand across his eyes, 
 And with an effort starts to rise: — 
 
 " Had you not led me to believe that this man was his 
 uncle, after whom it now appears this man was 
 merely named, I never would have pledged myself 
 to do this sickening crime. You well know how the 
 other Robert Kent, excited by your always lying 
 tongue, accused me falsely of your ruin and disgrace. 
 That accusation, in which he persisted with a stub- 
 bornness which fed upon your lies, has wrecked my 
 entire life, and had this Robert Kent been him, as 
 till the other night you led me to believe, I would 
 have fought the challenged duel with no conscientious 
 pangs — but when I learned that this was not that 
 Robert Kent, I couldn't take his life and drink his 
 blood." 
 
 Mrs. Townsend goes to him: — 
 
 " Then as I've done it, give me my reward." 
 
 Pratt asks again, ivith added vim: — 
 " Do you see any blood upon my hands ? " 
 
56 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Her mind is bent on but one thing: — 
 " Will you give me my reward for killing him ? " 
 
 Not yet has reason taken wing: — 
 " When you have given proof that he is dead." 
 " His name is tattooed on his hand." 
 " The proof is handy, then." 
 " And will the hand be proof enough ? " 
 
 She asks, preparing to descend. 
 
 Toward Heaven Pratt's lean arms extend: — 
 
 " His hand and head — Ya -a-a-a-a — Kill me ! I am 
 going mad." 
 
 Mrs. T at once comes bad': — 
 
 " I'll kill you if you'll give me my reward." 
 
 She slaps his face a sounding whack: — 
 
 " Come, are you going mad ? The love for which you 
 plunged into this crime should help you out of it." 
 The breezes of each blotv upon him seem 
 To fan his sickly Reason s flickering gleam: — 
 
 k( 'For my child's sake, I'll kill him, sir.' Oh, love did 
 oil those words so well, that when I tried to say, ' this 
 crime is wrong,' I said ' 'tis right,' for I felt something 
 would be righted by the wrong, yet knew that it was 
 wrong to make it right." 
 " Come, stop your idiotic talk ! " 
 " Had calm deliberation held my hand, until tired 
 
 Reason muttered ' let it go — ' " 
 " Impulsive strength would be unknown to you." 
 " I've found it but a mental squall of wind." 
 " But it has fanned your sickly nature into life." 
 Impidsive strength becomes her as a wife; 
 Again she f am his nature into life, 
 Sounding as if she his face had kissed; — 
 But when again she slaps, the face is missed. 
 Pratt ansivers, with liis actions far less wild: — 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 57 
 
 " If only I can once more have my child, we'll both die 
 honored by that nature's honest death, before we 
 thrive on Kent's dishonest blood." 
 
 Mrs. Townsend grasps him by the beard: — 
 " Then I should have the money Charlton gave. Sir 
 William Pratt, your child was dead when that con- 
 tract was signed." 
 
 Stern Pratt does not believe — 'tims what she feared: — 
 " My child was dead when that contract was signed ! 
 You lie. The proof ! the proof will get me back my 
 child. I'll give you all the money when you give 
 the proof." 
 
 She knowing well his stubbornness, 
 
 Knows that he knows she is truthless, 
 
 And down the well starts to descend. 
 
 Pratt sliows on ivhat his doubts depend: — 
 
 " I asked Charlton if she was dead, he answered, ' No.' " 
 
 To which the woman adds — descending: — 
 " And asked if he, or Christ's religion, told a lie." 
 
 This puts all Pratt's doubts at an ending. 
 Weakly sinking to the ground, 
 He gazes vacantly around: — 
 
 " There is no power in Heaven or Hell but love, and I 
 must love myself enough to be avenged, or die where 
 I now am. It is a power from Hell, but it must 
 strengthen, (rises) No ! it's but an impulse and a 
 madness. I'll not trust to it. (sinks — rises.) But I 
 have promised Roger Charlton that my part of this 
 contract would be fulfilled, and I will never break a 
 promise I have made. Sure, honor is a love of self 
 which Heaven must permit." 
 
,58 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Florence enters, seeking for the man 
 
 She left behind. Pratt madly tries to scan 
 
 Her face; and in the pale moonlight, 
 
 Shoios that, at last, Reason has taken flight: — 
 
 " Pray who are you, my lovely maid ?" 
 
 "Iara the wife of Robert Kent." 
 
 " Will you be mine when he is dead ? " 
 
 " I am, till death his wife." 
 
 " Well said ! My wife — once Mrs. Kent — said it, not 
 knowing what it meant. A friend heard her pretty 
 name, though she was a handsome dame — loved and 
 plunged her into shame. Does my love for you seem 
 tame ? It's because I fear the same. — Well, suppose 
 your husband came ? Would apologies be lame ? — 
 Come and kiss me, lovely dame." 
 
 Florence runs away from him, 
 
 While from the Well's ragged rim, 
 
 Seeming from another ivorld, 
 
 Gome the words, Jrom its depths hurled: — 
 
 11 Pull up the bucket hanging down the well." 
 
 Mad Pratt absently obeys, 
 While his thoughts his actions craze: — 
 
 " The woman says she is his wife. It is a fancy ! — Why 
 is she his wife ? Because she has a passion for the 
 man. I'll make her have a passion now for me : 
 and then she will be my wife if she takes a fancy to 
 the thought ; and we'll be married — married — why, 
 what does that mean ? Come back, my head, and 
 sit here on my shoulders while I think ! — What, this 
 is not my head. — It is the head of Robert Kent ! — 
 That lovely women has remained until his death, the 
 wife of Robert Kent. My wife intended to, but she 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 59 
 
 did not. No, she did not remain his wife, but let us 
 see what power it was that bound the other wife of 
 Robert Kent to him till death." 
 
 Pratt follows Florence, with the head awl h<ni<I; 
 The moon is blackened — darkness Jills the land. 
 
 — II — 
 
 The night scene shifts to Uncle Olneysftrm, 
 After an evening party ; when the cliarm 
 Of Japanese lanterns has nearly gone, 
 And left only the moonlight on the lawn. 
 Margaret and Dr. Walton enter: — 
 
 " Are we alone at last ? " 
 
 He siveetly tries to take her hand; 
 But she refuses his demand: 
 
 " Were we alone at first ? " 
 
 " When we were bending over Uncle in your parlor, do 
 you mean ? When Miss Longstaffe was in a room 
 adjoining by an open door ? When Mrs. Townsend 
 was behind us in the room which we were in ? And 
 when your Uncle, absent through unsconsciousness, 
 at any instant might revive and be with us ? — Well 
 I suppose that we are now no more alone. Yet then 
 we were in social solitude." 
 
 ''How could that be ? " 
 
 " You were alone in wishing to revive my Uncle. I was 
 alone in wishing, for a moment, he would not revive. 
 Yet neither of us were alone ; for bending toward his 
 lips in eagerness to catch that word, our hot cheeks 
 touched, and we each felt the other one was then:. 
 Do not deny it ; for I felt the warm blood flush into 
 
60 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 your cheek. My own head swam, but yours seemed 
 trained for such emergencies. And let me now con- 
 gratulate you on that little strategem — the tone of 
 voice in which you wailed those words, ' I am descend- 
 ing into Hell!' 'Twas such a perfect imitation of 
 the way his wife perhaps wailed them, that they 
 recalled his absent spirit far more quickly than I 
 could have done with stimulants. The bare idea of 
 imitating her showed brilliancy — perhaps your wit 
 inspires my tongue too much ? " 
 " Your silence seemed to best inspire my wit." 
 ; ' If you persist in being witty I must talk. Your wit 
 
 inspires." 
 " Your speech made my thought warm, but chilled my 
 
 wit." 
 " Then you shall think until your w T it perspires. I'll 
 make a warmer speech to you. 'Tis that — 
 One hope above all effort soars, 
 
 One dream comes o'er me when 1 rest, 
 And in my mind a rapture pours 
 
 Which cannot be expressed 
 Till you feel raptured at the word 
 
 Which gives this hope, this dream, to life : 
 Until, my darling, you have heard 
 
 That I have hoped to call you — ' Wife.' 
 
 '* Why, those are Roger Charlton's rhymes ! " 
 Her dart strikes Walton through the head: — 
 
 " They were anonymously published in a petty magazine 
 (one which he thought she had not read) and Fancy 
 strung them on my tongue. — But who is Roger 
 Charlton, pray ? " 
 
 " A friend." 
 
 " Did Roger Charlton write these rhymes to you ? " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS Gl 
 
 " Yes, with another verse. Will you repeat it, please ? " 
 "Must I ?" 
 
 Margaret hesitates : — 
 
 " I— I think it best!" 
 
 Walton for a moment waits: — 
 
 " ' Still disappointed hopes will twine 
 
 Around you, where life's dream is wrapped, 
 Though that one thought — ' you'll not be mine ' — 
 
 Has all their vigor sapped. 
 But I will no more pain your breast 
 
 With torturing love against it pressed : 
 My future life from yours I'll wrest, 
 Yet love you always. It — it — ' " 
 He tvill not finish, 
 She concludes:— 
 
 " seems best." 
 
 Walton, true to his own ■part, 
 Knows she speaks not from her heart: — 
 
 " Will you allow me, Mrs. Kent,to call you 'Marguerite? ' '' 
 
 Miss Longstaffe enters with a large bouquet: — 
 
 " Dr. Walton, do you like flowers ? " 
 
 He still continues to look Margaret's way: 
 "Yes, I like Marguerites." 
 " How strange ! " 
 
 " I like a singular — of the plural." 
 11 What?" 
 
 " I like a single Marguerite." 
 " A single one ?" 
 
 " I would not like a married one." 
 " How foolishly you talk ! " 
 " You have a Marguerite ? " 
 " Yes, I have one at your disposal." 
 
 And Miss Longstaffe extends a single flower: 
 He looks at the bouquet with passionate power: — 
 
62 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Would you object if I should choose my own ? " 
 
 " Not in the least." 
 
 " Then I would choose this Marguerite for mine." 
 
 He turns and looks at Margaret, 
 Whose blushes show her passion yet. 
 " I've never seen such boldness shown to Margaret Kent ! " 
 
 And Miss Lowjstaffe could not forget. 
 Walton speaks with downcast eyes: — 
 " I humbly beg your pardon. Mrs. Kent, have I become 
 too bold ? " 
 
 A nd Margaret painfully replies:— 
 " No — but — don't say any more to me." 
 " Then, Miss Longstaffe, as she forbids my talking any 
 
 more to her, I'll have to go away forever if I hold my 
 
 tongue." 
 
 And Walton seemingly prepares to go-, 
 But Margaret's answer is not calm nor sloiv: — 
 " Don't go away from me ! " 
 
 Thinking it ivill exaggerate 
 
 Her love, he tries to leave in haste: — 
 
 " She has forbidden me to speak to her ! " 
 
 She scorns him for such stubbornness: — 
 " How cruel not recognize my countermand. Speak just 
 one sentence, sir, then go away." 
 
 But Walton sees she cares for him no less: — 
 
 " Margaret, I will write to you." 
 
 He leaves, and Miss Longstaffe remarks:— 
 " That man well knows the art of making love. — Have 
 you forgotten that your husband is alive ? " 
 
 Margaret boivs her head; the silence harks: — 
 " I have resolved to be divorced from Robert Kent." 
 
ACT III 
 
 The wheel of Time another month has spun; 
 Young Charlton up to Pratt's garret has run. 
 He lights a lamp, unseals a letter, and begins to read: — 
 " 'Oar true love bond is broken 
 If the truth to me is spoken : 
 'Tis that you, misunderstanding 
 
 The power which is commanding 
 The love you give to me, 
 
 Are in your thoughts aspiring 
 A hidden end : desiring 
 
 To give me your love beyond 
 Restrictions of my present bond 
 With Robert Kent. ' 
 
 Well, Margaret, I am aspiring 
 this hidden end: desiring your true happiness beyond 
 restrictions of your present bond with Robert Kent." 
 
 He fires the letter with a match. 
 Watching it burn ; then seems to catch 
 D ^termination from the thought, 
 And to his feet at once is brought: — 
 
 " Desire for your true happiness forms my true love for 
 you, and in what constitutes it, passion will not have 
 one thing to do." 
 
 A moment's silence: Enter Pratt, 
 Treading on Toby, the cot. 
 
 " Well, well, my friend ; I got your telegram saying you 
 would return from South America to-day and meet 
 me here to-night. You've kept your word." 
 
 (63) 
 
64 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " I always keep my word when it is in my power. I've 
 
 never broken but one promise in my life." 
 "And what was that?" 
 " I promised myself I should see my daughter here with 
 
 you." 
 Charlton takes a ■paver from his pocket: — 
 " In this agreement it is written that you give me sole 
 
 possession till delivery of the proof that Robert Kent 
 
 has died." 
 
 Pratt sputters at him like a rocket: — 
 
 " And when that proof has been delivered will you give 
 
 me back — " 
 " You have my written pledge to give as I agreed." 
 "Alive or dead ?" 
 
 " Alive, as we agreed in this contract." 
 " I don't believe you, lad." 
 " Produce the proof that you have done as you agreed 
 
 and I will carry out my part as / agreed." 
 " I am convinced my child is not alive." 
 " I never in my life have told a lie." 
 " Give me my daughter first." 
 " Let your proof prove me false or true to my agreement, 
 
 sir. We'll carry out the thing exactly as 'tis written 
 
 here." 
 "And in case you have lied to ni3 ? " 
 
 Charlton hand* to him a roll of bills: — 
 " Examine them." 
 
 Pratt in a moment with renewed hope thrills: — 
 " Ten thousand dollars ! " 
 " If I have lied to you, it will be yours." 
 
 Pratt now believes that his~ child is alive: — 
 
 " I will lay by the forfeit and produce the proof." 
 
U 1 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 65 
 
 A hollow glass, shaped like a small bee-hive, 
 He lifts out of a box as Charlton turns: — 
 Within him horrid anger at Pratt burns:— 
 " Do you attempt to craze me with a sight like this, and 
 then deceive me with the thought : ' It is the head of 
 Robert Kent ? ' — Yet it resembles every portrait I 
 have seen." 
 u Here is more proof for you." 
 " A ring ! Well, what of that ? " 
 " Please look at the inscription, lad." 
 
 Robert — Margaret — December 20, 1876.' The fatal 
 day that they were married ! Yes." 
 1 Another ring which goes with that ! " 
 ' ' Gladys — October— 77.' Yes." 
 ' Do you want more proof ? " 
 'Yes." 
 
 Pratt gives to him the severed hand: — 
 
 ;< Read the tattooed inscription, sir." 
 Charltoris gaze on it is bent, 
 And he mutters, "Robert Kent," 
 But seems not to understand. 
 Slowly turning to Kent's head, 
 In a strange, weird voice is said: — 
 " I'm much more pleased with this sight over here. It's 
 much more horrible, but far more satisfactorily it 
 shows an end of Robert Kent. (Charlton acts quite 
 foolishly.) Did you bring up the other one ? " 
 " He only had one head. What do you want ? " 
 " The other end of Kent. I want his foot. Laugh ! 
 
 was not that a good pun, sir ? " 
 " How can you be so heartless with your subject, lad ? " 
 " So heartless with my subject ? Kent is a heartless 
 subject, is he not ? Come, laugh ! That was another 
 
66 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 pun. Tel] me : where is the heart of Robert Kent ? " 
 
 " I left it with his wife. She was a lovely woman ! She 
 would be, till death, his wife. ' Will you be mine 
 when he is dead ? ' — I asked her ; and she said — " 
 
 "What are you telling me, you fiend ! That you have 
 left the heart of that man with his wife ? Sir, when 
 came you to know the wife of Robert Kent ? " 
 
 " When he accused me falsely of her ruin and disgrace, 
 and then held we were married, though no legal form 
 had been observed : and as the man persisted in that 
 accusation with a stubbornness which fed upon her 
 lies, from a consideration for the woman, whom he 
 then deserted, I consented to become her husband, 
 but, me lad, she proved that when a marriage partner 
 ceases to regard the sacrednessof marriage once, that 
 partner's moral character is not improved by marry- 
 ing a second time." 
 
 " Sir, you are raving mad, and yet you have more wisdom 
 than the bigwigs of our law, who, although Robert 
 Kent's first marriage was a wreck, would stilt allow 
 its guilty partner every right to wreck a second one." 
 
 " Why need her first marriage have ended so ? " 
 
 " Simply because of incapacity for a desire above a 
 passionate love, which is the alcohol of a fermenting 
 blood that kills the heart, although it stimulates the 
 head and hand." 
 
 "Ay ! Ay ! it ivas that love which made her heartless, 
 but she had a head and hand which few could 
 grapple with." 
 
 " Sir William Pratt, present that sight to Margaret Kent, 
 that she may hold it to the world's eye as an illustra- 
 tion of the ruinous work of passionate love." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS '>< 
 
 <'_The heart decayed, although the head and hand 
 
 appear to be unchanged." 
 
 * ***** * 
 
 Pratt wonders where hk child can be: — 
 
 *• But you amended your agreement ; keep it so. It's 
 herein written I should give the proof to Margaret 
 Kent, but you said if I would deliver it to you, you'd 
 give me back — you are not listening lad ! " 
 
 " Were you remarking something, Mr. Pratt ? " 
 
 Sternly Pratt continues now, 
 While a dottbt darkens his brow: — 
 
 " 1 have just given, dead, the life you left with me. Please 
 give me now, alive, the life I left with you." 
 
 Charlton bows 'politely to the floor: — 
 
 " This is the only one you left, sir. Here's the cat." 
 
 Poor Pratt can hold in noiv no more: — 
 
 " You liar, you have lied to me ! " 
 
 Cool Charlton holds out their contract:— 
 
 " Do you know how this reads ? " 
 
 But Pratt's mind seems completely racked:— 
 u I don't know anything." 
 With self-possession Charlton reads: — 
 
 " My charge was, ' every living thing' you had. When 
 this contract was signed, your child was dead' 1 
 
 Pratt couches like a tiger at his feet:— 
 
 " Have you, or has Religion, told a lie ? " 
 
 Charlton stands— then slowly beats retreat:— 
 
 " — It's my belief Religion tells the truth.— I have been 
 fairly beaten.— Take the forfeit, sir. The murder of 
 this man and your wrongs torture my poor soul. Only 
 my love for Margaret can make it bearable. — But 
 Margaret, your happiness shall be my first desire, 
 for merely amorous affection cannot constitute true 
 
68 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 love. When I have proved your happiness to be my 
 first desire, this crime will be an noble one." 
 Pratt's head has sunk upon his knees: — 
 " Nothing is noble when ignobly done ! " 
 
 His words Charlton's blood seem tojreeze: — 
 u Then crime cannot be nobly done." 
 He lays his hand upon Kent's head, 
 And takes Kent's hand into his own: — ■ 
 
 " Our marriage, Margaret, can never be ; but I thank 
 Hell that you from Robert Kent are free." 
 
 A past life lies before him, — dead, 
 
 The future of the past,- -unknown. 
 • * * * * 
 
 From the closet Pratt removes the bomb, 
 Lights the fuse — then stands a moment dumb: — 
 
 " 'Tis written here, ' I will deliver the said proof to 
 Margaret Kent? With not a promise broken in my 
 life, shall I now break this one in death ? — No! (He 
 extinguishes the fuse.) I will subjugate my death to 
 what my life has been — a slave to that one sentiment 
 of keeping promises. (Discovers Charlton in a faint.) 
 Poor Margaret, I pity you, but I must to myself be 
 true, and I've two duties to perform before I die ; one 
 to that fellow-man, the other to my God. My duty 
 to that fellow-man demands this promise be ful- 
 filled: the duty to my God. — ' Thy will ' — judgment 
 on Roger Charlton's head — ' be done on earth ': And 
 that Thy judgment may be passed on earth, poor 
 Margaret must read his signature on this — 'The 
 Doom of Robert Kent.' " 
 
 He puts Charlton s agreement with his own, 
 
 And lays them in the hand of Robert Kent; 
 
 Returns the head and hand into the box, 
 
 And puts his bomb into a leather bag: — 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 69 
 
 " This bomb ior Margaret : this bomb for me." 
 And Pratt (joes out, taking the box and bag. 
 
 — II — 
 
 Again the esthetic home of Margaret Kent. 
 But Margaret, herselj, this time is bent 
 
 With easy grace above a manuscript. 
 Her emptied pen into the ink is dipped, 
 
 When George, a servant, enters with a card. ' 
 
 " What, George ! a caller at this time of night ? " 
 " Yes ma'am ; he says that he must see you, please." 
 41 Why don't you bring the card to me ? " 
 " Because I find you're in your ' sanctuary.' " 
 " ' Sanctum ! ' can't you remember it ? " 
 " No ma'am, I can't. I get the two words mixed some- 
 times. The dictionary said a ' sanctum ' was a holy 
 place where angels stayed, and so I never feel I'm 
 good enough to come in here." 
 " You're good enough to be wherever I am, George." 
 " I never thought of it ! You are the kind of angels that 
 stay in sanctums, then." 
 Goes up to Margaret and gives the card. 
 She reads the name — Iter features become hard: — 
 " Why, what's the matter, Mrs. Kent ? " 
 " Oh — nothing, — let the gentleman — come up." 
 George leaves and Margaret calls after him: — 
 
 " But he must wait a minute. I can't meet him in such 
 plight as this." 
 
 Lets down her hair before the glass. — 
 George, hearing not her call, brings Walton in, 
 Btd feeling his mistake to be a sin 
 Unfitting him to stay where Margaret is, 
 With bowed head, meekly vanishes. 
 
70 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Margaret ! " 
 
 " Please call me, Mrs. Kent. Good evening, Dr. Walton, 
 I hope you will excuse this great disorder and unti- 
 diness. I had to have some writing ready by to-morrow 
 for the printer, and have been working desperately at 
 it. Being so late, I had not thought it probable that 
 callers would come in. This is the copy of a poem 
 which the editor had paid me for, and I had spent 
 the money, and .my conscience twitted me. and I 
 resolved to finish it. I've ruined my gold pen in the 
 attempt." 
 
 " I fear you ruined your pen writing me." 
 
 " I fear that letter which I sent was ruinous to the bril- 
 liant estimation you expressed." 
 
 " Indeed, it did not ruin my own estimation of you, Mrs. 
 Kent, but for a future brilliant estimation in the eyes 
 of all the world, I think, — I hope — I half believe 
 that it has ruined you. — I mean, that on the strength 
 of what your pen has written me, I feel the right to 
 ruin it and say ' You shall not write for money any- 
 more ; henceforth I shall take care of you.' Please 
 tell me : has not money made your pen go round 
 to-night ? " 
 The rising passion Margaret tries to hide: — 
 
 " I see ; you do not know what a brilliant authoress I 
 am. I have a Destiny." 
 
 But Walton s passion is at its jiood-tide: — 
 
 " Your Destiny is to belong to me. Have you not made 
 it so ? Do you not wish it so ? I love you ! Simply 
 love you, dearest, with the truest love on earth. — Oh, 
 why are you so silent ? — Is it because you care for 
 some one else — speak — more than me ? " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 71 
 
 She items to Walton with uplifted face: — 
 u No — no — there is no one ! " 
 
 She yields to his embrace, — then shoivs surprise. 
 And he, having her wedding ring, replies: — 
 
 " You think I should have waited ! is that it ? — But why 
 should I have waited? Are you not now mine? Then 
 in all justice you ought not to bind yourself to me still 
 linked by this ring to another man. If you now love 
 me more than your dead husband, I have every right 
 to break your former chain." 
 
 u What sir ! is my husband dead ? " 
 
 " Is he alive ? " 
 
 " I thought you knew it, sir." 
 
 " Why Mrs. Townsend told me he was dead ! Knew it ! 
 I knew it ? What do you think of me ? " 
 
 " I thought you knew. How could you help but know, 
 when everybody does ? He is in South America." 
 
 " — And is this so ! Then, simply to vindicate my con- 
 duct, let me state the fact that I supposed you were 
 a widow. — I beg you to enlighten my dull under- 
 standing as to the nature of your caprice with my 
 love. What role was I to fill in your life, please ? 
 Must I read this ? It is from Uncle ! " 
 
 Walton (/lances at the letter, 
 Every nerve would break its fetter: — 
 
 " Oh, I see ! You are going to have a divorce ! A most 
 magnanimous intention. Personally I must express 
 my gratitude." 
 
 Margaret, stung by each expression, 
 Struggles for calm self-possession: — 
 
 " I never thought, sir, of deceiving you ! What have I 
 done to gain or keep your love ? Did you not come 
 here of your own free will ? And when your Uncle, 
 
72 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 whom I loved and trusted so entirely, wrote me in 
 that way, I felt my safety and my happiness to lie 
 in following his advice, — It seemed to have been 
 settled for me, and I was so tired of struggling all 
 alone. — I cannot understand it all! Your uncle says 
 there in his letter that you wrote to him about your 
 love for me, and I thought you had wisely settled it 
 between you ; and so when you came to-night, — what 
 else could I expect ? " 
 
 Walton s thoughts, on passions tide 
 
 Have been drifting far and wide: — 
 
 " I understand it all. I have not yet seen Uncle Rob 
 since I returned, and he did not have time to write 
 before I came. He never dreamed I cared for you 
 until I wrote. — But he speaks here of some young 
 man, whose love should give you strength for a 
 divorce." 
 
 " Do you mean Roger Charlton ? " 
 
 " Yes. Is Charlton anything to you ? " 
 
 " What did I tell you once ? " 
 
 " Tell me again. Is there a man, — leaving the one in 
 South America alone, — who now stands nearer to 
 your heart than I ? " 
 
 " Dr. Walton ! " 
 
 " Tell me." 
 
 " Your ignorance insults me, sir." 
 
 " My love is no less true ! " 
 
 " Your ignorance still insults, if you believe our love can 
 be. It is all ended : quite." 
 
 " My love is true : the end can never be." 
 
 ' ; And do you think this passionate affection constitutes 
 true love ? " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS i 6 
 
 " When given only to one woman ; yes." 
 Margaret like a yoddess stands — 
 As one bound not tvitli Earth's bands: — 
 
 lt Then you are with the world. Go, sir, where you 
 belong. I am above such love.'' 
 
 — Ill — 
 
 On the ill-lit street in front, 
 
 Enters Pratt, — with accents blunt: — 
 
 " This bomb for Margaret ; this bomb for me ! " 
 
 He ascends the steps. The door 
 
 Walton opejis: — Pratt says o'er: — 
 " This bomb for Margaret ; this bomb — " 
 
 From Walton s lips the words are flung: — 
 i% You drunken bum ! Clear out of here ! " 
 
 Pratt asks, with every nerve unstrung: — 
 
 k ' Is — is — M — Margaret to home ? " 
 
 Walton thinks, " Whom can this be, 
 
 Who speaks a word denied to me ? " 
 " Who are you ? Where do you come from, sir ? " 
 " I come from — from South America. — Is M-M - Mar- 
 garet to home ? " 
 
 " From South America .' " —the thoughts quickly occur : 
 
 " He calls her 'Maryaret: ' " " Kent has come back to her ! " 
 
 " ( This must be Robert Kent ! ) " 
 " Is M - M - Margaret to home ? " 
 " She is." 
 
 Pratt, staggeHng, passes on and in, 
 
 While Dr. Walton murmurs with a grin: — 
 ' ; And she shall teach me what does constitute true 
 love ! " 
 
 He listens for a moment: from within 
 Comes a cry to make the cheeks grow thin, 
 
74 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 For Margaret's words the wildest horrors tell: — 
 •• T am descending into Hell ! " 
 
 Pratt, in a second, rushes through the door: — 
 " Stand back ! Stand back ! I am a desperate man ! " 
 
 He lights the fuse of bomb: — Walton stands o'er: — 
 " Margaret shall teach me what does constitute true love. 
 You shall not kill yourself ! " 
 
 With which he snatches bomb: both grapple in 
 
 The darkness: bomb explodes — and with the din 
 
 A windoiv curtain flies up like a shot, 
 
 Revealing Miss Longstaffe with anger hot, 
 
 Extending Robert's hand to Margaret, 
 
 In which " The Doom of Robert Kent " lies yet: 
 
 Miss Longstaffe points at Charlton's signature: 
 
 The light from window faintly shows the poor, 
 
 Torn, xorecked, and lifeless form of honest Pratt, 
 
 And Walton, stealing off without his hat: — 
 
 While, dead, beneath the window, lies Toby, the cat. 
 
 — IV — 
 
 The scene is changed as by a magic spell. 
 
 Rio Janeiro has a prison-cell, 
 
 In which a man is lying on a bed. 
 
 A woman rises: — he hurls at her head: — 
 " None but the devil comes here in this shape ! " 
 " Sh -h - h - ! not so loud ! I'm Mrs. Townsend, sir." 
 " Yes, madam, that is what I said." 
 
 Mrs. Townsend whispers in his ear: — 
 
 " I have come here to help you to escape. Come, follow 
 me." 
 
 And he replies, in tones which mock her fear: — 
 " ' Get thee behind me, Satan ! ' "' 
 
 She motions to a hole through which she came: — 
 
 " Give me your hand and I will save your life." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 7"> 
 
 But he replies in tones he cannot tame: — 
 
 " That's what you said when we were in the well. I cul 
 
 my hand off and I gave it you " 
 
 " And thereby saved your life." 
 
 "I lost my freedom, which was just as dear." 
 
 " You lost that for your brother's death." 
 
 " You killed my brother, though." 
 
 " When I cut off his head ? " 
 
 " Yes ; for when I slung him in the well, the Court has 
 
 proved he was not dead." 
 " Well then, I saved your life by losing his." 
 " My freedom, as I said, was life when lost." 
 " Then I will save your freedom, sir." 
 " You'll save my freedom by losing my life ! " 
 " I'm not deceiving you." 
 " Not in the least. You came to-night to kill me while 
 
 I slept. I heard you digging through the wall into 
 
 my cell. Behold, it is a trap : you are the mouse : I 
 
 am the bait : you've nibbled at me — " 
 " But it hasn't snapped ! " 
 " The trap is of a different kind." 
 " Hell ! " 
 " You are in it : get out if you can." 
 
ACT IV 
 
 Margaret now lives in a Country Home, 
 Into a room of which she has just come, 
 
 Where Miss Longstafte is taking stitches 
 In a manly pair of breeches, 
 
 Which, ill-fitting such a dame, 
 Margaret sits clown to exclaim; — 
 
 " The horror of my life ! To think that I, — I, Margaret 
 Kent, who have had such visions and such dreams, 
 have come to this ! " 
 
 Miss Longstafit slowly lays aside her work:— 
 
 " Margaret, is it Divine Economy to lose one life to gain 
 another one ? " 
 
 Margaret shows that both the question shirk; — 
 " I wish you would decide for me. I'm losing everything 
 for Robert Kent. Since he came home I have lost 
 faith, hope, love and even self-respect, in order that 
 he may live happily. (Gladys enters, but by neither 
 seen.) Ambition lost, nothing is anything to me. 
 How can I live when life from me has gone, and left 
 me in my body all alone ? " 
 
 Gladys steps from out behind the screen: — 
 
 " Your life is in me, mamma ! I am here." 
 " Yes dear, you are my life to me." 
 
 Miss Longstaffe rises, taking Margaret's hand: — 
 
 u And I ? " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 77 
 
 " You are the salt of it." 
 
 And she concludes, continuing to stand:— 
 " Believe one thing ; that where you are, there I am also, 
 Margaret. If thirsting in the desert, I too thirst 
 with you : if where the waters bubble up, I too will 
 bubble up." 
 Margaret gives a little laugh:— 
 
 "I like to have you bubble up ! — There, I feel better 
 now, but do not like to have my patience in suspense." 
 
 Then comes this ponderous speech from Miss Longstoffe: — 
 
 " Margaret, I have at last decided an undecided ness in 
 all my past decisions. I wish to talk with you. 
 This life need not go on." 
 
 She beckons Margaret and they leave the room. 
 
 Gladys speaks as though ivithin a tomb:— 
 
 " Mamma, I know papa has asked you for more money, 
 but he shall not do it anymore. I'll give him all 
 of mine. You wouldn't take it, but perhaps he will. 
 I must help some." 
 (She gets her bank and screw- driver.) "I've ever so 
 many gold pieces. Real gold! Mamma said that they 
 were. And one's a great big one. I'll count them 
 over for the last time now, and I'll remember all the 
 happiness which came with every one. (Her father 
 comes in at the rear.) Here is the big one Uncle 
 Olney gave me when I wouldn't marry Roger Charlton 
 at my birthday-party 'cause I loved mamma too 
 much to love him most. This was my wedding 
 present when I didn't marry him. Good-bye now 
 for the first last time ! (She kisses it.) Good-bye ! 
 I will not look at you again. And here's the one 
 that Mr. Charlton gave me when I wrote papa, and 
 
/8 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 asked him to come home to us. But I wish now I 
 hadn't written it. The gold is redder than the rest, 
 and always make me think of blood." 
 Her father thinks it best to disappear. 
 " Sometime I'll tell mamma about my writing to papa, 
 but I'm afraid to tell her that I did. — Some one is 
 coming ! I must cover these ! " 
 
 Her father enters now as if from Heaven, 
 Bearing smiles ivhich would all Sheol leaven: — 
 " Papa, I wish you wouldn't ask mamma for money any 
 more." 
 Each smile dies out ivitli her exploded rocket: — 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 Proceeds to take a letter from his pocket; 
 Dampens a blotting pad; lays over seal; 
 Places on shelf: weights, and turns on his heel. 
 
 " Because she has to work so hard to pay for all these 
 rooms, for what we eat, and for the clothes we wear. 
 Now please don't go to her for money any more. — I'd 
 rather give you mine ! " 
 
 " Yours ! how much have you got ? " 
 
 " Ever so many gold pieces." 
 
 " Nickels, you mean. I don't believe they're gold." 
 
 u Mamma said that they were." 
 
 " I'll tell you if they are." 
 
 " Well, — " 
 Gladys reluctantly uncovers them: 
 A love of gold a father s feelings stem: — 
 
 " Phew ! Sixty dollars ! I don't think you love your 
 father and your mother much, if, when you know 
 they're bothered about money matters, you can hide 
 away this wealth, and will give them no help at all 
 with it." 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 7 ( .) 
 
 Gladys to the heart is stung 
 With the dart her father flung: — 
 
 " Ever and ever so many times I've poured it out in 
 mamma's lap, and said, ' Please use it. I would lovo 
 so much to have you use it.' But she said that it 
 was mine, and wanted me to keep it for myself." 
 
 She stops — looks at it longingly, 
 
 Until her tearful eyes no more can see: — 
 
 " If you will use it — it is yours to do with what you like." 
 
 Again that cursed love of gold 
 Makes the fathers love grow cold: — 
 
 " Well, I will take it for a loan, and just as soon as I can 
 find employment, I'll replace it — put two pieces in 
 for every one that I take out. — Perhaps it would be 
 better not to tell your mother, dear." 
 " I shall not tell mamma ! " 
 A nd as only a child can cry, 
 She leaves him, — sobbing to hi* sigh,— 
 
 " Oh, well, we cannot cook a meal without a fire ! — I 
 guess the seal is soaked enough to loosen now. 
 (Opens letter — takes out check — ) One thousand 
 dollars ! Phew! I am in luck. (He tools at the begin- 
 ning and the end.) ' England — Roger Charlton, — let's 
 see about this thing! (Reads.) ' I've been a stranger 
 since we parted just one year ago, in order to allow 
 your life to drift away from mine, 
 But still yours is the form which clings 
 
 About me, till its trembling wings 
 Of love are drooping in my melancholy eye ; 
 
 Yet in my mind's uncertain light, 
 Dull doubts deny that I am right 
 In still believing that it shares 
 The love I feel, or that it cares 
 For the desires which, slumbering, deep within me lie.' 
 
80 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Young man your love had better slumber till I die. 'I 
 write you principally to verify what probably already 
 is well known; that Robert Kent no longer lives upon 
 this earth.' 
 
 " Oh, I remember ! Mrs. Townsend said that Roger 
 Charlton was the fiend who bargained for my hand. 
 
 " ' Further than the fact that Robert Kent has died, I 
 need not state, for I presume his death was learned 
 upon your application for divorce, as both were 
 nearly simultaneous.' 
 
 '• Had Margaret applied for a divorce ? I knew it not. — 
 ' Under a nom deplume, I have just published my own 
 poems in book form. As every sentiment expressed 
 in them relates in some way to the love I have for 
 you, I wish you to accept my interest in the copy- 
 right, and overcome your modesty regarding the 
 acceptance of financial help you have not worked to 
 earn, by realizing that the poems would not have 
 been written if it had not been for you ; as no one 
 else could have called forth from me the sentiments 
 therein expressed. Should you not wish, however, 
 to appropriate the proceeds as your own, I have so 
 left the matter with the publishers, that Gladys will 
 receive the profits when she is of age. The enclosed 
 check is from the publishers for one-half interest in 
 the copyright, and in the future there should be a 
 somewhat steady income from the royalties, which 
 has all been arranged in such a manner with the 
 publishers, that you hereafter will transact all 
 business with them.' 
 
 " As Uncle Olney used to say, ' Now that I'm getting old^ 
 I sometimes think that Providence provides for me 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 81 
 
 when I cannot:' for Margaret repeatedly has said 
 that she would not accept one penny which she didn't 
 earn, and I am sure that she would not accept as 
 much as this ; and as to Gladys, — I might just as 
 well be using it as have it lying in the bank until 
 she is of age, and when she is, I can return it all. 
 A little clever management, and Margaret need never 
 know of it ; — and I am safe with Roger Charlton, 
 for he adds, ' I shall not write again, and will conceal 
 my whereabouts. Believing that my power to aid 
 your happiness is exhausted, I must still allow our 
 lives to further drift apart, well knowing that our 
 marriage, Margaret, can never be.' " 
 
 Robert thinks- George enters with a card, 
 And Robert scans it with a strange regard: — 
 
 " ' Robert Olney Kent! ' My uncle ! Why, he's dead. It 
 may be some relation who has come here to dispute 
 the will whereby one-half his fortune was bequeathed 
 to Margaret ! Well, let the gentleman come in." 
 
 George exits. 
 Robert places Charlton s letter, 
 For the lack of some place better, 
 'Gainst his breast inside his collar, 
 A nd begins to sport a dollar. 
 
 Enter George, announcing Dr. Walton 
 As "Robert Kent," but feeling that a fault on 
 Some one's part must surely have been made, 
 Gives Rob the card, and goes oid to his trade. 
 Robert looks at Walton in surprise: — 
 
 " Am I gazing in a mirror, sir ? — Is your name ' Robert 
 Olney Kent ? ' " 
 Walton stares at Robert and replies: — 
 
 " Those are the words by which they christened me." 
 Robert wonders at the paradox: — 
 
82 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " Kut that is my name, sir ! " 
 This statement Walton evidently shocks: — 
 
 " I thought you blew yourself to pieces with a bomb- 
 shell at your doorstep just a year ago ! — I must have 
 been mistaken when I thought that it was you, and 
 ever since then I have been away, so my mistake has 
 not been rectified. — Yet I persist, my name is ' Robert 
 Olney Kent.' " 
 
 Robert looks Walton straight in the eye: — 
 
 u Whose fault is it that mine is just the same ? " 
 
 And Walton coolly gives him the reply: — 
 
 " But yours is not the same." 
 
 Robert asks him, someivhat in alarm: — 
 " Don't I know my own name ? " 
 And Walton calmly waves at him his arm: — 
 
 " Not if you call mine yours." 
 
 Robert looks at him still more alarmed: — 
 
 " It is the name by which they christened me." 
 
 And Walton with the subject groivs more charmed: — 
 
 " Perhaps you recollect the minister who christened 
 
 you ?" 
 Robert waves a handless arm at him: — 
 " No bullying ! no bull-dozing, sir." 
 Cool Walton asks, as Robert's face grotos grim: — 
 
 " Did Mrs. Townsend ever say she saw you christened? " 
 
 "No. Suppose she did?" 
 
 " You would then hear about the ' H English ' minister 
 who christened you, and of the Boston minister who 
 christened me. The ' H English ' minister could not 
 pronounce your middle name without an 'H '; hence 
 you were christened, ' Robert Holney Kent,' while I 
 was christened ' Robert Olney Kent. ' ' Holney, ,' 
 ' Olney f is the difference 'tween our legal signatures. 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 83 
 
 Which one is written here in Margaret's ' Certificate 
 of Marriage ' with the same ? " 
 
 Robert reads, somewhat against his will: — 
 
 " ' Robert Olney Kent.' " 
 
 Walton remarks, while both their natures thrill: — 
 
 "That is my legal signature ; not yours." 
 
 " I'll give you just three minutes to clear out ! " 
 
 And Robert draws an ugly -looking knife. 
 
 " I'll give you till I've counted four to put that weapon 
 down." 
 
 And Walton, with a pistol, threats his life. 
 
 " I've faced such threats too many times to be afraid." 
 
 But Robert says it with a nervous twitch. 
 Light Walton counts, unswerving in his aim: — 
 
 11 One — two — three — " 
 
 Robert slashes like a willow switch, 
 The knife: — cross Walton s wrist it came, 
 Quite severing it: both knife and pistol drop, 
 While Robert adds, to justify his act: — 
 
 " Once, sir, I gave my hand to save my life ; now you 
 have given yours." 
 
 But Walton is not ready yet to stop: — 
 " Your life is not yet saved ! " 
 
 Both, by a common impulse backed, 
 
 Dive down: the weapons get exchanged, 
 
 And Walton rises like a fiend deranged: — 
 
 " I have another hand ! " 
 
 And with the knife stabs Robert in the 
 Robert tittering one sharp cry, — 
 Muttering — 
 " And so have I." 
 
 Fires at Walton: both sink into rest. 
 ***** 
 
 Miss Longstaffe and Gladys enters, 
 With pale Margaret in the center. 
 Coolly viewing Robert Kent, 
 
84 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 Miss L speaks, ivith slow accent: — 
 
 " Margaret, I think you are at last released, if your own 
 strength has failed." 
 Margaret, with a weird spell bound, 
 Tears Kent's clothing from the wound. 
 Finding Charlton s letter there, 
 Site gives it to Gladys' care: — 
 
 " No ! no! he is not dead! He breathes ! " 
 
 Margaret, with eyes closed in prayer, 
 Does not see her husband raise 
 On his arm and at her stare, 
 While she for his death thus prays: — 
 
 "0 God ! if Divine Providence supplied his life, provide 
 now for his death, and take him into Hell, for he 
 would find his Heaven there. Until his death I'll be 
 his slave, but after death let him serve bondage to 
 himself, alone. Our souls have never been united, 
 yet our bodies have been bound together with a chain 
 I have not had the strength to break. I've always 
 thought 'twas noble not to try, and I've just proven 
 that I think it still. God, do now for me what I 
 can never do : release me from his loathed embrace." 
 
 As Charlton toished, Kent's soul was softened well, 
 
 Until he realized he was in Hell: — 
 
 "There is no God, but you shall be released." 
 
 A bullet choTced the words, and his life ceased: — 
 ****** 
 
 Margaret sees the crime of her harsh prayer, 
 A nd throws her arms around him in despair: — 
 
 " He has been wronged ! Until you show that his was 
 not true love for me, by proving that he gave affection 
 to some other woman as his wife, consider I am still 
 the wife of Robert Kent." 
 
 Walton rises from the place he lay, 
 
 And wild with his pain, manages to say: — 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 85 
 
 u And please consider i" am Robert Kent ! And that you 
 have decided ' merely passionate affection for one 
 woman constitutes true love.' — I can give proof that 
 I am ' Robert Olney Kent,' and that that man's true 
 legal name is not. Hence by this paper, you have 
 married me." 
 
 Margaret views the paper with high scorn, 
 
 While Gladys to the side of Kent is borne:— 
 " ' What constitutes a marriage ? Verbal laws ? ' " 
 
 She asks Walton: continuing as she draws 
 
 Kent closer to her side with ebbing life: — 
 
 " This child is witness that we two are man and wife." 
 
ACT V 
 
 We visit Margaret's Country Home again. 
 Her once aesthetic tastes have grown too plain. 
 The walls about the room are nearly bare; 
 She now lies sick in bed '?ieath Gladys' care. 
 Miss Longstaffe enters with her face more grim, 
 And out of breath exclaims: — 
 
 " I have found him ! " 
 
 " Found whom ? " 
 
 " The man who loved and then deserted you." 
 
 " Found Dr. Walton ? " 
 
 " I also have found it ! " 
 
 " Found what ? " . 
 
 "The proof that Robert Kent divorced himself from you 
 
 by giving his affection to another woman as his wife. 
 
 I will bring Dr. Walton and the proof to you." 
 
 She leaves, and through an open door 
 Dr. Walton stands before: — 
 11 I've come, never, never to leave you again, if you will 
 let me stay ! " 
 And they embrace. — Weakness seems to prevent her 
 From answering him, — but she saio Charlton enter: — 
 
 " Oh, Roger Charlton, I've forgotten you ! " 
 
 She exclaims it with closed eyes. 
 Pale Charlton sadly replies: — 
 
 " We sometimes disremember, but we never do forget." 
 
 Miss Longstaffe enters, bringing after her, 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 87 
 
 Florence and Mrs. Townsend — things which were. — 
 Charlton speaks with humbled head, 
 Wishing that he coidd be dead: — 
 
 " While your arms hold him to your breast, my arms 
 are impotent, and while the lips of Mrs. Townsend 
 denounce me, my own lips will be dumb. Clasp on, 
 and I will turn my eyes away ; speak on, and I'll be 
 deaf to what you say." 
 
 Mrs. T still plays the hypocrite: — 
 
 " My lips are dumb when they would denounce you." 
 
 Walton says aside, that none hear it: — 
 
 " (Oh, Margaret, you are so homely now ! ) " 
 
 And fascinated by a thing of beauty, 
 Addresses Florence as a courteous duty. 
 Charlton, at the quickly changed aspects, 
 Addresses Margaret as his love directs: — 
 
 " Then my own lips can speak, since that man has 
 spurned you. Margaret, when I had seen the 
 scoundrel, Robert Kent, in sporting clubs, making a 
 toy of that which should have bought you bread, 
 and when his selfish appetites had been appeased, 
 returning to your sleepless couch a gluttonous beast: 
 when I knew such had been your married life with 
 him and would still be if he returned to you from 
 South America, I interposed my true love 'tween you 
 and that beastly man, although the murder vomited 
 his filthy life upon my soul. I never knew the details 
 of his death, and yet I could tell what would deafen 
 you to hear. I took the life of Robert Kent into my 
 hands because I wished to gain your happiness, but 
 now, to gain my happiness, I must take mine, and go 
 for Judgment to the God of each." 
 At ivhich he draws out a revolver: — 
 
88 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 " You didn't kill him, Charlton ! Stop ! " 
 
 Miss Longstaffe has fired a " dissolve}'." 
 
 Charlton gives her an astonished look; 
 
 Florence gave some cue which Walton took: — 
 11 Let's have some explanations ! This lovely woman 
 will tell who she is." 
 
 Florence sweetly above Margaret stands: — 
 
 " I am till death the wife of Robert Kent." 
 
 And, to Walton a marriage paper hands. 
 On Mrs. Townsend Walton s eye is bent 
 As he exclaims, — 
 
 " And I am Robert Kent ! " 
 
 To Florence he extends a hand less arm, — 
 
 Embracing her ; which does material harm 
 
 To Mrs. Townsend" s scheme, since her hard strife 
 
 Had been to gain him Margaret for a wife, 
 
 And armed with proof for that she had here come: — 
 
 But now concludes; — 
 
 " And I to lies am dumb." 
 
 Miss Longstaffe takes down, framed, from of the wall, 
 Poor Margaret's marriage paper, — with the call of— 
 
 " Robert Olney Kent, I charge you, sir, with bigamy." 
 
 Florence quickly writhes from out his arms; 
 
 But Margaret tries to quiet his alarms 
 
 By pointing at Gladys: — 
 " No, I am not your wife." 
 " Because you're not my father, sir." 
 
 Tin* fife-like voice supports her mothers tones. 
 Addressing Florence, — Margaret he disowns: — 
 
 " I never loved that woman as my wife." 
 
 And Margaret falls back with no seeming life. 
 Charlton 8 fist in Walton s face is sent: — 
 
 " I thought that I had killed you, Robert Kent ! " 
 
 With which, to Margaret is quickly said, 
 As with an effort she sits up in bed: — 
 
 " What power chained you to Robert Kent for life ? " 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 89 
 
 "The thought that parents should be man and wife." 
 
 And having weakly spoken; .she/alls back 
 
 With her fare drawn "as though the flesh mould crack." 
 " You have been his wife in this world, but in the next — " 
 
 Charlton pauses— Margaret tries t > sped:: is vexed. 
 u Her tongue is paralyzed ! " 
 
 Miss Longstqffe cries; 
 
 And all but Charlton stand in dumb surprise. 
 
 lie hands to her a pencil and a paper, 
 
 And 'prickly asks — as flickers her life's taper; — 
 
 iC You have been his wife in this world, but in the next? — " 
 
 And Margaret writes— while Charlton seems unsexed: — 
 
 " ' My lover will be he who had the truest love.' " 
 
 He reads, while Margaret is withdrawing from life's glove — 
 • l Stand back ! " (As Miss Longstaffe upon him bears: — ) 
 11 Let no one meddle with my soul's affairs." 
 
 To Margaret then: — 
 
 " What constitutes true love?" 
 
 And Margaret, struggling, tries to speak, — 
 Then write, — then calmly drops life's glove. 
 Bid crazy Charlton still repeats: — 
 
 " What Constitutes True Love ? " 
 
 Charlton, waking from his sleep 
 Whereof we this record keep — 
 
 Where this Dream had left him maddened- 
 Since the Dream's recorded ending 
 
90 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 
 
 O'er a poem has been bending; 
 
 And, Header, you will be saddened 
 With its contents: but, imploring 
 Pardon for my faults ignoring, — 
 
 / end my work with a sigh. 
 - — Let ivho can do better try. 
 
 Qt^Coo^^^- 
 
(IN PREPARA TION) 
 
 The Tragedy of Errors 
 
 A POEM 
 
 By CHARLTOTST 
 
 Being a continuation in the next world of the Dream 
 
 so poorly portrayed by Julius in the Dramatic 
 
 Poem of the same title 
 
i IRRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 iiiiMiMii 
 
 016 102 646 3 1