The Burgraves

The fundamental conception of the drama "The Burgraves" is a dramatic struggle between two antithetical forces: fatality attempting to impose punishment on a degraded race and providence striving to pardon and to rehabilitate. The poet has embodied the force of fatality in an old slave named Guanhumara, a sorceress endowed with a knowledge of medicinal herbs. She has effected several cures, including that of Hatto the grandson of Job, who is the chief burgrave; and on this account, she is a...