lead in contradiction to reason and conscience: such a state of mind is a sort of anarchy, which every one is ashamed of, and endeavours to hide or dissemble. Even love, however laudable, is attended with a conscious shame when it becomes immoderate: it is covered from the world, and disclosed only to the beloved object : Et que l'amour souvent de rumors combattu Boileau, L'art poet. Chant. iii. 1. 101. 0, they love least that let men know their lore. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Sc. 3. Hence a capital rule in the representation of immo: derate passions, that they ought to be hid or dissembled as much as possible. And this holds in an especial manner with respect to criminal passions : one never counsels the commission of a crime in plain terms : guilt must not appear in its native colours, even in thought: the proposal must be made by hints, and by representing the action in some favourable light. Of the propriety of sentiment upon such an occasion, Shakspeare, in the Tempest, has given us a beautiful example, in a speech by the usurping Duke of Milan, advising Sebastian to murder his brother the King of Naples: Antonio. -Wbat might, (Vorthy Sebastian-0, what might-no more. And yet, methinks, I see it in thy face, What thou shouldst be: th' occasion speaks thee, and My strong imagination sees a crown Dropping upon thy head. Act II. Sc. 1. There never was drawn a more complete picture of this kind, than that of King John soliciting Hubert to murder the young Prince Arthur: K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hubert, We owe thee much; within this wall of Aesh There is a soul counts thee her creditor, And with advantage means to pay thy love. And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished. Give me thy hand, I had a thing to sayBut I will fit it with some better time. By Heav'n, Hubert, I'm almost ashamed To say what good respect I have of thee. Hubert. I am much bounden to your Majesty. K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet But thou shalt have and creep time ne'er so slow, Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. I had a thing to say -byt let it go; Hubert. So well, that what you bid me undertake, K. John. Do not I know thou would'st? a He lies before me. Dost thou understand me? King John, Act III. Sc. 5. As things are best illustrated by their contraries, I proceed to faulty sentiments, disdaining to be indebted for examples to any but the most approved authors. The first class shall consist of sentiments that accord not with the passion; or, in other words, sentiments that the passion does not naturally suggest. In the second class, shall be ranged sentiments that may belong to an ordinary passion, but unsuitable to it as tinctured by a singular character. Thoughts that properly are not sentiments, but rather descriptions, make a third. Sentiments that belong to the passion represented, but are faulty as being introduced too early or too late, make a fourth. Vicious sentiments exposed in their native dress, instead of being concealed or disguised, make a fifth. And in the last class, shall be collected sentiments suited to no character nor passion, and therefore unnatural. The first class contains faulty sentiments of various kinds, which I shall endeavour to distinguish from each other; beginning with sentiments that are faulty by being above the tone of the passion: Othello. O my soul's joy! Othello, Act II. Sc. 6. This sentiment may be suggested by violent and inflamed passion, but is not suited to the calm satisfaction that one feels upon escaping danger. Philaster. Place me, some god, upon a pyramid Philaster of Beaumont and Fletcher, Aet ļV. Second. Sentiments below.the tone of the passion. Ptolemy, by putting Pompey to death, ħaving incurred the displeasure of Cæsar, was in the utmost dread of being dethroned: in that agitating situation, Corneille makes him utter a speech full of cool reflection, that is in no degree expressive of the passion. Ah! si je t'avois crû, je n'aurois pas de maitre, Lu morte de Pompee, Act IV. Sc. 1. In Les Freres ennemies of Racine, the second act is opened with a love-scene: Hemon talks to his mistress of the torments of absence, of the lustre of her eyes, that he ought to die no where but at her feet, and that one moment of absence is a thousand years. Antigone on her part acts the coquette : pretends she must be gone to wait on her mother and brother, and cannot stay to listen to his courtship. This is odious French gallantry, be low the dignity of the passion of love: it would scarce be excusable in painting modern French manners; and is insufferable where the ancients are brought upon the stage. The manners painted in the Alexandre of the same author are not more just : French gallantry prevails there throughout. VOL. I. 47a Third. Sentiments that agree not with the tone of the passion; as where a pleasant sentiment is grafted upon a painful passion, or the contrary. In the following instances the sentiments are too gay for a serious passion: No happier task these faded eyes pursue; Eloisa to Abelard, 1. 47. Again, Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch'a aid, Eloisa to Abelard, i. 51. These thoughts are pretty: they suit Pope, but not Eloisa. Satan, enraged by a threatning of the angel Gabriel, answers thus: Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, star-pavód: The concluding epithet forms a grand and delightful images, which cannot be the genuine offspring of rage. |