him being the inability to find someone suited to take the leading
rôle. Stoddard's own comment was:

Whether [it] was ever produced I know not, but I should
say not, for the part of the principal character, _Lady
Goldstraw_, is one which no actress whom I remember could have
filled to the satisfaction of her creator. The fault of this
character (me judice) is that it is too good to be played on a
modern stage. It ought to have been written for antiquity two
hundred years ago.

Boker was right when he referred to himself as "prolific" at this
time. He already had produced, in 1851, according to markings on the
manuscript, a piece called "All the World a Mask," and he had
written "The Podesta's Daughter," a dramatic sketch, issued, with
"Miscellaneous Poems," in 1852. Toward the end of this year, he
completed "Leonor de Guzman."

"Her history," he writes to Stoddard, on November 14, "you
will find in Spanish Chronicles relating to the reigns of
Alfonso XII of Castile and his son, Peter the Cruel. There are
no such subjects for historical tragedy on earth as are to be
found in the Spanish history of that period. I am so much in
love with it that I design following up 'Leonor de Guzman' by
'Don Pedro'. The present tragedy, according to the judgment
of Leland, is the very best play I have written, both for the
closet and the stage. Perhaps I am too ready to agree
with him, but long before he said it I had formed the same
judgment."