This play—originally intended to form part of Angels and Ministers—was separated on an after-thought as a concession to those who do not like to have their politics and their religion mixed. And, as the Victorian age was eminently successful in keeping the two apart, it is 'in keeping,' in another sense, with the Victorianism of the religion here portrayed that it should make its appearance under a separate cover.

As some of my critics seem anxious to trace the inspiration of these Victorian plays to an outside source, and are divided, as regards the historical section, between the Abraham Lincoln of Mr. John Drinkwater and the Queen Victoria of Mr. Lytton Strachey, may I assure them that my historical method of treating Kings and Queens 'intimately' was derived from my own play Pains and Penalties, published in 1911, and that my anthropomorphic theology is based upon the first book I ever wrote, Gods and their Makers, published in 1897. I do not think that Possession owes anything either to Cranford or the writings of Mrs. Humphry Ward.