have the opinion of some good actor--not a sensational actor--on that point. I should like to have Booth look at them." Six weeks later, having gone over to London to secure the copyright on these poems, he writes: "I saw also Bandmann, the tragedian, who expressed the liveliest interest in what I told him of the 'Tragedies.'" Finally he says, two days later, "Bandmann writes me a nice letter about the 'Tragedies,' but says they are not adapted to the stage. So we will say no more about that, for the present."{97} "Christus: A Mystery" appeared as a whole in 1872, for the first time bringing together the three parts (I. "The Divine Tragedy;" II. "The Golden Legend," and III. "The New England Tragedies"). "The Divine Tragedy," which now formed the first part, was not only in some degree criticised as forming an anti-climax in being placed before the lighter portions of the great drama, but proved unacceptable among his friends, and was often subjected to the charge of being unimpressive and even uninteresting. On the other hand, we have the fact that it absorbed him more utterly than any other portion of the book. He writes in his diary on January 6, 1871, "The subject of 'The Divine Tragedy' has taken entire possession of me, so that I can think of nothing else. All day pondering upon and arranging it." And he adds next day, "I find all hospitalities and social gatherings just now great interruptions." Yet he has to spend one morning that week in Boston at a meeting of stockholders; on another day Agassiz comes, broken down even to tears by the loss of health and strength; on another day there is "a continued series of interruptions from breakfast till dinner. I could not get half an hour to myself all day long. Oh, for a good snow-storm to block the door!" Still another day it is so cold he can scarcely write in his study, and he has "so many letters to answer." Yet he writes during that month a scene or two every day. We know from the experience of all poets that the most brilliant short poems may be achieved with wonderful quickness, but for a continuous and sustained effort an author surely needs some control over his own time.