PRIZE POEMS, AND OTHER SPECIMENS OF DRAMATIC POETRY. BOSTON: 1824. INTRODUCTORY. IN September, 1823, the manager of the Boston Theatre, by advertisement in the newspapers, offered a prize of the value of fifty dollars, for the best Ode, or other poetical Address, that should be presented previous to the first of December then following, suitable to be recited at the exhibition of a pageant in honour of Shakspeare. Upwards of thirty pieces were offered. The manager appointed ten gentlemen of literary reputation, in Boston and Cambridge, to award the prize. The following is the report of the committee. "The gentlemen who were requested by the manager of the Boston Theatre to examine the merits of the several poems written on occasion of the approaching jubilee in honour of Shakspeare, and to decide which is entitled to the medal proposed, are of opinion that this honour should be awarded to Mr. Charles Sprague, as the author of the poem, marked No. 22, The gentlemen however owe it to the author of a poem entitled, "Shakspeare's Triumph," to say, that its intrinsick merit is so great, and it is so well adapted to recitation, that they consider it entitled to high commendation, and they cannot but express their wish that the author would allow it to be recited on the stage. W. DUTTON, A. RITCHIE, in behalf of the Committee. Among the unsuccessful compositions, were several of much merit; and to present these to the publick, together with that which obtained the prize, in a form convenient for preservation, was the primary object of the present publication. The piece alluded to by the Committee, entitled "Shakspeare's Triumph," is that which immediately follows the Prize Ode. In selecting from the rejected pieces for this publication, the publisher was not governed altogether 1401:33 by his own opinion. Two or three are inserted which his own taste and judgment would have induced him to reject. The piece numbered 13 is inserted at the special request of the writer. It afterwards occurred to the publisher, that it might gratify many readers to find in the same volume, several other productions of a similar nature, which have been elicited by similar occasions. To the original pieces are therefore added the Prize Prologue of the late Robert Treat Paine, two Prize Prologues by Charles Sprague, and one by Thomas Wells,-all of Boston. That the reader may have an opportunity, if he wishes, to compare not only the respective merits of these productions with each other, but also to view them side by side with the productions of English poets in the same species of composition, the volume is enriched with Pope's Prologue to Cato, Johnson's celebrated Prologue at the opening of Drury-Lane theatre, Garrick's Ode for the Shakspeare Jubilee, Rogers's Address for Mrs. Siddons, Sheridan's Monody on Garrick, Byron's Prize Prologue, and Kemble's Address on leaving the stage. |