paints more to the life than mauy words. The following instances will explain my meaning, and at the same time prove my observation to be just: Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the faundice, Again: Merchant of Venice, Act 1. Sc. 2. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reasons are two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them they are not worth the search. Ibid. In the following passage a character is completed by a single stroke. Shallow. O the mad days that I have spent; and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead. Silence. We shall all follow, Cousin. Shallow. Certain, 'tis certain, very sure, very sure; Death, (as the Psalmist saith) is certain to all: all shall die. yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair? Slender. Truly, Cousin, I was not there. How a good Shallom. Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet? Silence. Dead, Sir. Shallow. Dead! see, see; he drew a good bow and dead. He shot a fine shoot. How a score of ewes now? Silence. Thereafter as they be. A score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds. shallow. And is old Double dead? Second Part, Henry IV. Act III. Sc. 3. Describing a jealous husband: Neither press, coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abstract for the remembrance of such places, and goes to them by his note. There is no hiding you in the house. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 1. Sc. 3. Congreve has an inimitable stroke of this kind in his comedy of Love for Love: Ben Legend. Well, father, and how do all at home? how does brother Dick, and brother Val? Sir Sampson. Dick: body o' me, Dick has been dead these two years. I writ you word when you were at Leghorn. Ben. Mess, that's true: marry, I had forgot. Dick's dead, as you say. Falstaff speaking of ancient Pistol: Act III. Sc. 6. He's no swaggerer, hostess: a tame cheater i'faith; you may stroak him as gently as a puppy-greyhound; he will not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any shew of resistance. Second Part, Henry IV. Act. II. Sc. 9. Ossian, among his other excellencies, is eminently successful in drawing characters; and he never fails to delight his reader with the beautiful attitudes of his heroes. Take the following in stances: O Oscar! bend the strong in arm; but spare the feeble hand. Be thou a stream of many tides against the foes of thy people; but like the gale that moves the grass to those who ask thine aid. So Tremor lived; such Trathal was; and such has Fingal been. My arm was the support of the injured; and the weak rested behind the lightning of my steel. We heard the voice of joy on the coast, and we thought that the mighty Cathmore came. Cathmore the friend of strangers, the brother of red-haired Cairbar. But their souls were not the same; for the light of heaven was in the bosom of Cathmore. His towers rose on the banks of Atha: seven paths led to his halls : seven chiefs stood on these paths, and called the stranger to the feast. But Cathmore dwelt in the wood to avoid the voice of praise. They Dermid and Oscar were one; they reaped the battle together: Their friendship was strong as their steel; and death walked between them to the field. rush on the foe like two rocks falling from the brow of Ardven. Their swords are stained with the blood of the valiant; warriors faint at their name. Who is equal to Oscar but Dermid? who to Dermid but Oscar? Son of Comhal, replied the chief, the strength of Morni's arm has failed; I attempt to draw the sword of my youth, but it remains in its place; I throw the spear, but it falls short of the mark; and I feel the weight of my shield. We decay like the grass of the mountain, and our strength returns no more. I have a son, O Fingal, his soul has delighted in the actions of Morni's youth; but his sword has not been fitted against the foe, neither has his fame begun. I come with him to battle, to direct his His renown will be a sun to my soul in the dark hour of my departure. O that the name of Morni were forgot among the people! that the heroes would only say, "Behold the father of Gaul." arm. Some writers, through heat of imagination, fall into contradiction; some are guilty of downright absurdities; and some even rave like madmen.Against such capital errors one cannot be more effectually warned than by collecting instances; and the first shall be of a contradiction, the most venial of all. Virgil speaking of Neptune, Interea magno misceri murmure pontum, Eneid, i. 128. Again : When first young Maro, in his boundless mind, Essay on Criticism, l. 130. The following examples are of absurdities: Alii pulsis e tormento catenis discerpti sectique, dimidiato corpore pugnabant sibi superstites, ac peremptæ partis ultores. Strada, Dec. ii. l. 2. Il pover huomo, che non sen' era accorto, He fled; but flying, left his life behind. Berni Iliad, xi. 433. Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped Odyssey, xxii. 365. The last article is of raving like one mad. Cleopatra speaking to the aspic, -Welcome, thou kind deceiver, Dryden, All for Love, Act v. Reasons that are common and known to every one, ought to be taken for granted; to express them is childish, and interrupts the narration. Quintus Curtius, relating the battle of Issus, Jam in conspectu, sed extra teli jactum, utraque acies erat ; quum priores Persæ inconditum et trucem sustulere clamorem. Redditur et a Macedonibus major, exercitus impar numero, sed jugis montium vastisque saltibus repercussus: quippe semper circumjecta nemora petreque, quantumcunque accepere vocem, multiplicáto sono referunt. Having discussed what observations occurred upon the thoughts or things expressed, I proceed to what more peculiarly concern the language or verbal dress. The language proper for expressing passion being handled in a former chapter, several observations there made are applicable to the present subject; particularly, That as words are intimately connected with the ideas they represent, the emotions raised by the sound and by the sense ought to be concordant. An elevated subject requires an elevated style; what is familiar, ought to be familiarly expressed a subject that is serious and important, ought to be clothed in plain nervous language: a description, on the other hand, addressed to the imagination, is susceptible of the highest ornaments that sounding words and figurative expression can bestow upon it. I shall give a few examples of the foregoing rules. A poet of any genius is not apt to dress a high subject in low words; and yet blemishes of that kind are found even in classical works. Horace, observing that men are satisfied with themselves, but seldom with their condition, introduces Jupiter indulging to each his own choice: Jam faciam quod vultis; eris tu, qui modo miles, Sat. lib. 1. Sat, i. I. 16. Jupiter in wrath puffing up both cheeks, is a low and even ludicrous expression, far from suitable to the gravity and importance of the subject: every VOL. II. 32+ |