Excerpt from The Cross of Sorrow: A Tragedy in Five Acts

In presenting this my first work to the public I recognize that in a preface, above all places, brevity is the soul of wit. Although a brief preface may not cover a multitude of sins, it is, at all events, one sin the less.

My play is built upon the pathetic tale in "Gil Blas" by Le Sage, entitled "The Fatal Marriage, " the beauties of which I trust I have not altogether obscured. I have endeavoured to write a blank verse play which shall preserve an equal balance between poetry and dramatic diction and situation, that shall have literary pretensions, and be at the same time - pardon the word - actable. If my story itself does not convey to the reader my farther and wider purpose it is useless for me to underline it here.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.