In them chance plays the part of fate.

"Blind accident and blundering mishap--'such a mistake,' says one of the criminals, 'as I have often seen in a play' are the steersmen of their fortunes and the doomsmen of their deeds." His characters are gloomy; meditative and philosophic murderers, cynical informers, sad and loving women, and they are all themselves in every phrase that they utter.

But they are studied in earnestness and sincerity.

Unquestionably he is the greatest of Shakespeare's successors in the romantic drama, perhaps his only direct imitator.

He has single lines worthy to set beside those in _Othello_ or _King Lear_.