SOURCE: “The Playboy of the Netherworld,” in Studies French and English, Cassell and Company Ltd., 1934, pp. 217-41.

In the following essay, Lucas asserts that Beddoes's work was unique for his time and praises stylistic aspects of his poetic drama.

‘Alors s'assit sur un monde en ruines une jeunesse soucieuse. … Et ils parlèrent tant et si longtemps, que toutes les illusions humaines, comme des arbres en automne, tombaient feuille à feuille autour d'eux, et que ceux qui les écoutaient passaient leur main sur leur front, comme des fiévreux qui s'éveillent.’ This is not a picture of post-war Europe; at least, not of our post-war Europe. The words are all but a century old. Thus wrote Alfred de Musset, middle-aged already in his twenties, just as Byron had been ‘a perfect Timon, not nineteen’. Even in his impudent little comedies, at moments, the same cry of anguish makes...