Virginia: A Tragedy, and Other Poems — Key Ideas to Explore

Diction and the Rhetoric of Extremity

Gilmore's characters speak in a consistently heightened register that blurs the line between formal verse and melodrama. Icilius, Virginia's betrothed, declares he would "sooner see her cold upon her bier, / Or bound upon the wheel of Ixion" than let Marcus Claudius touch her. The hyperbole is deliberate: the playwright uses mythological torture (Ixion's wheel) and a local landmark (Tarpeia's Rock) to measure the depth of his outrage. Appius Claudius, by contrast, employs a cold, legalistic tone—"We will acquiesce thus far"—that underscores his role as a manipulator of procedure. The contrast between Icilius's passionate outbursts and Appius's measured commands creates a verbal tension that mirrors the play's central conflict between personal loyalty and institutional power.

Stagecraft and the Crowd as Character

The opening stage direction describes a "multitude of citizens" with "sullen looks and murmurings," and later the crowd "sways" in response to Virginia's appeal. Gilmore uses the crowd as a collective presence that reacts to events in real time, almost like a Greek chorus. When Virginia invokes Lucretia, the stage direction notes a "swaying of the multitude"—a physical manifestation of shifting public opinion. The playwright also employs sound effects: a "hissing protest" from the crowd follows Appius's decision to place Virginia under guard. These details suggest Gilmore conceived the play with an eye to performance, using the mob's movements and noises to amplify the drama's moral stakes.

Symbolic Imagery and the Hymn to Diana

In Act I, Scene II, Virginia is discovered "kneeling in the sea of radiance" of moonlight, and she sings a hymn to Diana, the virgin goddess. The hymn's refrain—"Let me keep my spotless name, / Waking, sleeping, living, dying"—directly links her plea for chastity to the goddess's domain. Gilmore reinforces this symbolic association through the stage picture: Virginia prays in a pool of light, visually separated from the darkness around her. The playwright also uses weather as a symbol: a storm "shrieking in maddest fury" breaks at the end of Scene I, with lightning playing over the hills of Rome. This atmospheric detail aligns natural upheaval with the moral crisis of the plot.

The Role of Secondary Characters in Moral Contrast

Cornelia, a patrician lady secretly betrothed to the plebeian Sicinius, offers a foil to Virginia's predicament. When a slave remarks on Cornelia's pallor, she replies, "How canst thou weigh my pallor with her pain— / The anguish in her eyes?" This self-effacing speech establishes Cornelia as a character who subordinates her own distress to another's. Gilmore also gives her a philosophical contrast: "A living sorrow doth exceed a dead; / Death to dishonor seemeth merciful." This line not only foreshadows the tragedy's outcome but also articulates a moral calculus that the play explores through action. The nurse Camilla and the maid Julia, though less developed, serve as witnesses who ground the high-flown rhetoric in domestic space.

Readers approaching Virginia: A Tragedy will find a work that relies on classical allusion and formal verse to explore questions of honor, justice, and bodily autonomy. Gilmore's choices in diction—from Icilius's mythological threats to Appius's legalistic evasion—reward attention to how language shapes power. The accompanying poems, including sonnets and lyrics on subjects from Mt. Vernon to the Winged Victory of Samothrace, extend the author's interest in historical and mythological figures as vessels for contemporary moral reflection.