The Golden Legend by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Lucifer disguises himself as a physician and priest to exploit Prince Henry's illness, while the peasant girl Elsie offers to die at Salerno to cure him. Henry saves her from the sacrifice, returns healed, and marries her; angels record her selflessness and his repentance. A final scene shows Martin Luther at the Wartburg writing a hymn and addressing Philip Melancthon amid religious disputes.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Dramatic Poetry, Religious Drama, Allegorical Drama · 32 chapters · 48,483 words
First lines
Night and storm. LUCIFER, with the Powers of the Air, trying to tear down the Cross.
LUCIFER. / Hasten! hasten! / O ye spirits! / From its station drag the ponderous / Cross of iron, that to mock us / Is uplifted high in air!
Genres
- Dramatic Poetry — Named speakers conduct the action in verse, with stage directions marking entrances, journeys, confrontations, and the wedding's aftermath.
- Religious Drama — Elsie models her proposed sacrifice on Christ's death, Lucifer impersonates religious and medical authorities, and Henry struggles to reject a cure purchased with her life.
- Allegorical Drama — Mercy and Justice debate humanity's salvation in the embedded miracle play, while angels preserve good deeds and erase the record of repented evil.
Tags
voluntary sacrifice · illness · demonic temptation · pilgrimage · repentance · miracle plays · verse drama
What this Textopian page supports
The Golden Legend is listed on Textopian as a play by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Play
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Dramatic Poetry, Religious Drama, Allegorical Drama
- Length: 48,483 words
- Structure: 32 chapters, 796 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Golden Legend by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Contents
- Prologue: the Spire of Strasburg Cathedral
- I. the Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine
- I. Court-Yard of the Castle
- Ii. a Farm in the Odenwald
- Ii. a Room in the Farm-House
- Ii. Elsie's Chamber
- Ii. the Chamber of Gottlieb and Ursula
- Ii. a Village Church
- Ii. a Room in the Farm-House
- In the Garden
- Iii. a Street in Strasburg
- Iii. Square in Front of the Cathedral
- Iii. in the Cathedral
- Iii. the Nativity: a Miracle-Play
- Iv. the Road to Hirschau
- Iv. the Convent of Hirschau in the Black Forest
- Iv. the Scriptorium
- Iv. the Cloisters
- Iv. the Chapel
- Iv. the Refectory
- Iv. the Neighboring Nunnery
- V. a Covered Bridge at Lucerne
- V. the Devil's Bridge
- V. the St. Gothard Pass
- V. at the Foot of the Alps
- V. the Inn at Genoa
- V. at Sea
- Vi. the School of Salerno
- Vi. the Farm-House in the Odenwald
- Vi. the Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine
- Epilogue: the Two Recording Angels Ascending
- Second Interlude: Martin Luther