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raising a slight emotion of terror, agitates the mind; and in that condition every beauty makes a deep impression. May not contrast heighten the pleasure, by opposing our present security to the danger of encountering the object represented?

-The other shape,

If shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint or limb;

Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either; black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,

And shook a dreadful dart.

Paradise Lost, b. ii. 1. 666.

-Now storming fury ruse,

And clamour such as heard in heaven 'ill now
Was never; arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd; dire was the noise
Of conflict: overhead the dismal hiss
Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew,
And flying vaulted either host with fire.
So under fiery cope together rush'd
Both battles main, with ruinous assault
And inextinguishable rage; all heaven
Resounded; and had earth been then, all earth
Had to her centre shook.

Ghost

Paradise Lost, book vi. 1. 207.

-But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine :
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood.

Gratiano. Poor Desdemona! Thy match was mortal to him; Shore his old thread in twain. VOL. II.

34

Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 8.

I'm glad thy father's dead; and pure grief Did he live now,

This sight would make him do a desperate turn:
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobation.

Othello, Act V. Sc. 8.

Objects of horror must be expected from the foregoing theory; for no description, however lively, is sufficient to overbalance the disgust raised even by the idea of such objects. Every thing horrible ought therefore to be avoided in a description. Nor is this a severe law: the poet will avoid such scenes for his own sake, as well as for that of his reader; and to vary his descriptions, nature affords plenty of objects that disgust us in some degree without raising horror. I am obliged therefore to condemn the picture of Sin in the second book of Paradise Lost, though a masterly performance: the original would be a horrid spectacle; and the horror is not much softened in the copy:

-Pensive here I sat

Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb,
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,
Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd; but he my inbred enemy
Forth issu'd, brandishing his fatal dart,
Made to destroy; I fled, and cry'd out Death;
Hell trembl'd at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded Death.
I fled; but he pursu'd, (though more, it seems,
Inflam'd with lust than rage,) and swifter far,
Me overtook, his mother all dismay'd,
And in embraces forcible and foul
Ingendring with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters that with ceaseless
Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceiv'd
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite
To me; for when they list, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw
My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth,

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Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round,
That rest or intermission none I find.
Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows,
His end with mine involv'd; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be.

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Book ii. 1. 777.

Jago's character in the tragedy of Othello, is insufferably monstrous and satanical: not even Shakspear's masterly hand can make the picture agreeable.

Though the objects introduced in the following scenes are not altogether so horrible as Sin is in Milton's description; yet with every person of delicacy, disgust will be the prevailing emotion:

Strophades Graio stant nomine dicta

Insulæ Ionio in magno ; quas dira Celano,
Harpyiæque colunt aliæ : Phineia postquam
Clausa domus, mensasque metu liquere priores.
Tritius haud illis monstrum, nec sævior ulla
Pestis et ira Deûm Stygiis sese extulit undis.
Virginei volucrum vultus, fœdissima ventris
Proluvies, uncæque manus, et pallida semper
Ora fame.

Huc ubi delati portus intravimus: ecce

Læta boum passim campis armenta videmus,
Caprigenumque pecus, nullo custode, per herbas.
Irruimus ferro, at Divos ipsumque vocamus
In prædam partemque Jovem tunc littore curvo
Extruimusque toros, dapibusque epulamur opimis,
At subitæ horrifico lapsu de montibus adsunt
Harpyiæ: et magnis quatiunt clangoribus alas :
Diripiuntque dapes, contactuque omnia fœdant
Immundo tum vox tetrum dira inter odorem.

Eneid, lib. iii. 210.

Sum patria ex Ithaca, comes infelicis Ulyssei,
Nomen Achemenides; Trojam, genitore Adamasto
Paupere (mansissetque utinam fortuna !) profectus.
Hic me, dum trepidi crudelia limina linquunt,

Immemores socii vasto Cyclopis in antro
Deseruere. Domus sanie dapibusque cruentis,
Intus opaca, ingens: ipse arduus, altaque pulsat
Sider (Dii, talem terris avertite pestem)
Nec visu facilis, nes dictu affabilis ulli.
Visceribus miseorum, et sanguine vescitur atro.
Vidi egomet, duo de numero cum corpora nostre,
Prenfa manu magna, medio resuspiņus in antro,
Frangeret ad saxum, sanieque aspersa natarent
Limina vidi atro cum membra fluentia tabo
Mandéret, et tepida tremerent sub dentibus artuş.
Haud impune quidem nec talia passus Ulysses,
Oblitusve sui est Ithacus discrimine tanto.
Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus
Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum
Immensus, saniem eructaps, ac frusta cruento
Per somnum commixta mero; nos magno precati
Numina, sortitique vices, unà undique circum
Fundimur, et telo lumen terebramus acuto
Ingens, quod torva solum sub fronte latebat.

Eneid, lib. iii. 619.

271

CHAPTER XXII.

Epic and Dramatic Composition.

TRAGEDY differs not from the epic in substance in both the same ends are pursued, namely, instruction and amusement; and in both the same mean is employed, namely, imitation of human actions. They differ only in the manner of imitating: epic poetry employs narration; tragedy represents its facts as passing in our sight: in the former, the poet introduces himself as an historian; in the latter, he presents his actors, and never himself.*

This difference regarding form only, may be thought slight but the effects it occasions, are by no means so; for what we see makes a deeper im

t

*The dialogue in a dramatic composition distinguishes it so clearly from other compositions, that no writer has thought it necessary to search for any other distinguishing mark. But much useless labour has been bestowed, to distinguish an epic poem by some peculiar mark. Bossu defines it to be, "A composition in verse, intended to form the manners by instructions disguised under the allegories of an important action;" which excludes every epic poem founded upon real facts, and perhaps includes several of Esop's fables. Voltaire reckons verse so essential, as for that single reason to exclude the adventures of Telemachus. See his Essay upon Epic PoetryOthers, affected with substance more than with form, hesitate not to pronounce that poem to be cpic.-It is not a little diverting to see so many profound crities hunting for what is not: they take for granted, without the least foundation, that there must be some precise criterion to distinguish epic poetry from every other species of writing. Literary compositions run into each other, precisely like colours: in their strong tints they are easily distinguished; but are susceptible of so much variety, and of so many different forms, that we never can say where one species ends and another beginsAs to the general taste, there is little reason to doubt, that a work where heroic actions are related in an elevated style, will, without further requisite, be deemed an epic poem.

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