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T. Coleridge</p></div><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost + and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, + give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project + Gutenberg License <a href="#pglicense" class="tei tei-ref">included with this + eBook</a> or online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license" class="tei tei-xref">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a></p></div><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">Title: Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher + +Author: S. T. Coleridge + +Release Date: May 24, 2008 [Ebook #25585] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE, BEN JONSON, BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER*** +</pre></div> + </div> + <div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> + + </div> + + <hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%; font-weight: 700">Shakespeare</span></p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Ben Jonson</span></p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Beaumont And Fletcher</span></p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">Notes and Lectures</span></p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%">by S. T. Coleridge</span></p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">New Edition</span></p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">Liverpool</p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">Edward Howell</p> + <p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">MDCCCLXXIV</p> + </div> + <hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> + <h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Contents</span></h1> + <ul class="tei tei-index tei-index-toc"><li><a href="#toc1">Shakespeare</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc3">Definition Of Poetry.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc5">Greek Drama.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc7">Progress Of The Drama.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc9">The Drama Generally, And Public Taste.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc11">Shakespeare, A Poet Generally.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc13">Shakespeare's Judgment equal to his Genius.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc15">Recapitulation, And Summary +Of the Characteristics of Shakespeare's Dramas.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc17">Outline Of An Introductory Lecture Upon Shakespeare.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc19">Order Of Shakespeare's Plays.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc21">Notes On The “Tempest.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc23">“Love's Labour's Lost.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc25">“Midsummer Night's Dream.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc27">“Comedy Of Errors.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc29">“As You Like It.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc31">“Twelfth Night.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc33">“All's Well That Ends Well.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc35">“Merry Wives Of Windsor.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc37">“Measure For Measure.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc39">“Cymbeline.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc41">“Titus Andronicus.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc43">“Troilus And Cressida.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc45">“Coriolanus.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc47">“Julius Cæsar.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc49">“Antony And Cleopatra.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc51">“Timon Of Athens.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc53">“Romeo And Juliet.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc55">Shakespeare's English Historical Plays.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc57">“King John.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc59">“Richard II.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc61">“Henry IV.—Part I.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc63">“Henry IV.—Part II.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc65">“Henry V.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc67">“Henry VI.—Part I.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc69">“Richard III.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc71">“Lear.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc73">“Hamlet.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc75">“Macbeth.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc77">“Winter's Tale.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc79">“Othello.”</a></li><li><a href="#toc81">Notes on Ben Jonson.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc83">Whalley's Preface.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc85">“Whalley's ‘Life Of Jonson.’ ”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc87">“Every Man Out Of His Humour.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc89">“Poetaster.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc91">“Fall Of Sejanus.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc93">“Volpone.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc95">“Apicæne.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc97">“The Alchemist.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc99">“Catiline's Conspiracy.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc101">“Bartholomew Fair.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc103">“The Devil Is An Ass.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc105">“The Staple Of News.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc107">“The New Inn.”</a></li><li><a href="#toc109">Notes On Beaumont And Fletcher.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc111">Harris's Commendatory Poem On Fletcher.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc113">Life Of Fletcher In Stockdale's Edition, 1811.</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc115">“Maid's Tragedy.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc117">“A King And No King.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc119">“The Scornful Lady.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc121">“The Custom Of The Country.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc123">“The Elder Brother.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc125">“The Spanish Curate.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc127">“Wit Without Money.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc129">“The Humorous Lieutenant.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc131">“The Mad Lover.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc133">“The Loyal Subject.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc135">“Rule A Wife And Have A Wife.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc137">“The Laws Of Candy.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc139">“The Little French Lawyer.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc141">“Valentinian.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc143">“Rollo.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc145">“The Wildgoose Chase.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc147">“A Wife For A Month.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc149">“The Pilgrim.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc151">“The Queen Of Corinth.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc153">“The Noble Gentleman.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc155">“The Coronation.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc157">“Wit At Several Weapons.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc159">“The Fair Maid Of The Inn.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc161">“The Two Noble Kinsmen.”</a></li><li style="margin-left: 2em"><a href="#toc163">“The Woman Hater.”</a></li></ul> + </div> + </div> +<div class="tei tei-body" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em"> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page001">[pg 001]</span><a name="Pg001" id="Pg001" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> +<a name="toc1" id="toc1"></a> +<a name="pdf2" id="pdf2"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Shakespeare, With introductory matter on Poetry, the +Drama, and the Stage. +</span></h1> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc3" id="toc3"></a> +<a name="pdf4" id="pdf4"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Definition Of Poetry.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Poetry is not the proper antithesis to prose, +but to science. Poetry is opposed to science, +and prose to metre. The proper and immediate +object of science is the acquirement, or communication, +of truth; the proper and immediate object +of poetry is the communication of immediate pleasure. +This definition is useful; but as it would +include novels and other works of fiction, which +yet we do not call poems, there must be some +additional character by which poetry is not only +divided from opposites, but likewise distinguished +from disparate, though similar, modes of composition. +Now how is this to be effected? In animated +prose, the beauties of nature, and the passions and +accidents of human nature, are often expressed in +that natural language which the contemplation of +them would suggest to a pure and benevolent +mind; yet still neither we nor the writers call such +a work a poem, though no work could deserve that +name which did not include all this, together with +something else. What is this? It is that pleasurable +emotion, that peculiar state and degree of +excitement, which arises in the poet himself in the +act of composition;—and in order to understand +this, we must combine a more than ordinary sympathy +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page002">[pg 002]</span><a name="Pg002" id="Pg002" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +with the objects, emotions, or incidents contemplated +by the poet, consequent on a more than +common sensibility, with a more than ordinary +activity of the mind in respect of the fancy and +the imagination. Hence is produced a more vivid +reflection of the truths of nature and of the human +heart, united with a constant activity modifying +and correcting these truths by that sort of pleasurable +emotion, which the exertion of all our faculties +gives in a certain degree; but which can only +be felt in perfection under the full play of those +powers of mind, which are spontaneous rather than +voluntary, and in which the effort required bears +no proportion to the activity enjoyed. This is the +state which permits the production of a highly +pleasurable whole, of which each part shall also +communicate for itself a distinct and conscious +pleasure; and hence arises the definition, which I +trust is now intelligible, that poetry, or rather a +poem, is a species of composition, opposed to +science, as having intellectual pleasure for its +object, and as attaining its end by the use of +language natural to us in a state of excitement,—but +distinguished from other species of composition, +not excluded by the former criterion, by +permitting a pleasure from the whole consistent +with a consciousness of pleasure from the component +parts;—and the perfection of which is, to +communicate from each part the greatest immediate +pleasure compatible with the largest sum +of pleasure on the whole. This, of course, will +vary with the different modes of poetry;—and +that splendour of particular lines, which would +be worthy of admiration in an impassioned elegy, +or a short indignant satire, would be a blemish +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page003">[pg 003]</span><a name="Pg003" id="Pg003" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +and proof of vile taste in a tragedy or an epic +poem. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is remarkable, by the way, that Milton in +three incidental words has implied all which for +the purposes of more distinct apprehension, which +at first must be slow-paced in order to be distinct, +I have endeavoured to develope in a precise and +strictly adequate definition. Speaking of poetry, +he says, as in a parenthesis, <span class="tei tei-q">“which is simple, +sensuous, passionate.”</span> How awful is the power of +words!—fearful often in their consequences when +merely felt, not understood; but most awful when +both felt and understood!—Had these three words +only been properly understood by, and present in +the minds of, general readers, not only almost +a library of false poetry would have been either +precluded or still-born, but, what is of more consequence, +works truly excellent and capable of +enlarging the understanding, warming and purifying +the heart, and placing in the centre of the +whole being the germs of noble and manlike +actions, would have been the common diet of the +intellect instead. For the first condition, simplicity,—while, +on the one hand, it distinguishes +poetry from the arduous processes of science, +labouring towards an end not yet arrived at, and +supposes a smooth and finished road, on which the +reader is to walk onward easily, with streams murmuring +by his side, and trees and flowers and +human dwellings to make his journey as delightful +as the object of it is desirable, instead of +having to toil with the pioneers and painfully +make the road on which others are to travel,—precludes, +on the other hand, every affectation and +morbid peculiarity;—the second condition, sensuousness, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page004">[pg 004]</span><a name="Pg004" id="Pg004" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +insures that framework of objectivity, +that definiteness and articulation of imagery, and +that modification of the images themselves, without +which poetry becomes flattened into mere +didactics of practice, or evaporated into a hazy, +unthoughtful, day-dreaming; and the third condition, +passion, provides that neither thought nor +imagery shall be simply objective, but that the +<span lang="it" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="it"><span style="font-style: italic">passio vera</span></span> +of humanity shall warm and animate both. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +To return, however, to the previous definition, +this most general and distinctive character of a +poem originates in the poetic genius itself; and +though it comprises whatever can with any propriety +be called a poem (unless that word be a +mere lazy synonym for a composition in metre), +it yet becomes a just, and not merely discriminative, +but full and adequate, definition of poetry in +its highest and most peculiar sense, only so far +as the distinction still results from the poetic +genius, which sustains and modifies the emotions, +thoughts, and vivid representations of the poem +by the energy without effort of the poet's own +mind,—by the spontaneous activity of his imagination +and fancy, and by whatever else with +these reveals itself in the balancing and reconciling +of opposite or discordant qualities, sameness +with difference, a sense of novelty and freshness +with old or customary objects, a more than usual +state of emotion with more than usual order, self-possession +and judgment with enthusiasm and +vehement feeling,—and which, while it blends +and harmonizes the natural and the artificial, still +subordinates art to nature, the manner to the +matter, and our admiration of the poet to our +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page005">[pg 005]</span><a name="Pg005" id="Pg005" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +sympathy with the images, passions, characters, +and incidents of the poem:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Doubtless, this could not be, but that she turns</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Bodies to <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">spirit</span></em> by sublimation strange,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As fire converts to fire the things it burns—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As we our food into our nature change!</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“From their gross matter she abstracts <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">their</span></em> forms,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And draws a kind of quintessence from things,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which to her proper nature she transforms</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To bear them light on her celestial wings!</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Thus</span></em> doth she, when from <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">individual states</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">She doth abstract the universal kinds,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Which then reclothed in divers names and fates</span></em></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Steal access thro' our senses to our minds</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page007">[pg 007]</span><a name="Pg007" id="Pg007" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc5" id="toc5"></a> +<a name="pdf6" id="pdf6"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Greek Drama.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is truly singular that Plato,—whose philosophy +and religion were but exotic at home, +and a mere opposition to the finite in all things, +genuine prophet and anticipator as he was of the +Protestant Christian æra,—should have given in +his Dialogue of the Banquet, a justification of +our Shakespeare. For he relates that, when all +the other guests had either dispersed or fallen +asleep, Socrates only, together with Aristophanes +and Agathon, remained awake, and that, while he +continued to drink with them out of a large goblet, +he compelled them, though most reluctantly, to +admit that it was the business of one and the same +genius to excel in tragic and comic poetry, or that +the tragic poet ought, at the same time, to contain +within himself the powers of comedy. Now, as +this was directly repugnant to the entire theory of +the ancient critics, and contrary to all their experience, +it is evident that Plato must have fixed the +eye of his contemplation on the innermost essentials +of the drama, abstracted from the forms of +age or country. In another passage he even adds +the reason, namely, that opposites illustrate each +other's nature, and in their struggle draw forth +the strength of the combatants, and display the +conqueror as sovereign even on the territories of +the rival power. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Nothing can more forcibly exemplify the separative +spirit of the Greek arts than their comedy as +opposed to their tragedy. But as the immediate +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page008">[pg 008]</span><a name="Pg008" id="Pg008" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +struggle of contraries supposes an arena common +to both, so both were alike ideal; that is, the +comedy of Aristophanes rose to as great a distance +above the ludicrous of real life, as the tragedy of +Sophocles above its tragic events and passions,—and +it is in this one point, of absolute ideality, +that the comedy of Shakespeare and the old comedy +of Athens coincide. In this also alone did the +Greek tragedy and comedy unite; in every thing +else they were exactly opposed to each other. +Tragedy is poetry in its deepest earnest; comedy +is poetry in unlimited jest. Earnestness consists +in the direction and convergence of all the powers +of the soul to one aim, and in the voluntary restraint +of its activity in consequence; the opposite, +therefore, lies in the apparent abandonment of all +definite aim or end, and in the removal of all +bounds in the exercise of the mind,—attaining its +real end, as an entire contrast, most perfectly, the +greater the display is of intellectual wealth squandered +in the wantonness of sport without an object, +and the more abundant the life and vivacity in the +creations of the arbitrary will. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The later comedy, even where it was really +comic, was doubtless likewise more comic, the more +free it appeared from any fixed aim. Misunderstandings +of intention, fruitless struggles of absurd +passion, contradictions of temper, and laughable +situations there were; but still the form of the representation +itself was serious; it proceeded as +much according to settled laws, and used as much +the same means of art, though to a different purpose, +as the regular tragedy itself. But in the old +comedy the very form itself is whimsical; the +whole work is one great jest, comprehending a +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page009">[pg 009]</span><a name="Pg009" id="Pg009" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +world of jests within it, among which each maintains +its own place without seeming to concern +itself as to the relation in which it may stand to its +fellows. In short, in Sophocles, the constitution of +tragedy is monarchical, but such as it existed in +elder Greece, limited by laws, and therefore the +more venerable,—all the parts adapting and submitting +themselves to the majesty of the heroic +sceptre:—in Aristophanes, comedy, on the contrary, +is poetry in its most democratic form, and it +is a fundamental principle with it, rather to risk all +the confusion of anarchy, than to destroy the +independence and privileges of its individual constituents,—place, +verse, characters, even single +thoughts, conceits, and allusions, each turning on +the pivot of its own free will. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The tragic poet idealizes his characters by giving +to the spiritual part of our nature a more decided +preponderance over the animal cravings and impulses, +than is met with in real life: the comic +poet idealizes his characters by making the animal +the governing power, and the intellectual the mere +instrument. But as tragedy is not a collection of +virtues and perfections, but takes care only that +the vices and imperfections shall spring from the +passions, errors, and prejudices which arise out of +the soul;—so neither is comedy a mere crowd of +vices and follies, but whatever qualities it represents, +even though they are in a certain sense +amiable, it still displays them as having their origin +in some dependence on our lower nature, accompanied +with a defect in true freedom of spirit and +self-subsistence, and subject to that unconnection +by contradictions of the inward being, to which +all folly is owing. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page010">[pg 010]</span><a name="Pg010" id="Pg010" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The ideal of earnest poetry consists in the union +and harmonious melting down, and fusion of the +sensual into the spiritual,—of man as an animal +into man as a power of reason and self-government. +And this we have represented to us most +clearly in the plastic art, or statuary; where the +perfection of outward form is a symbol of the perfection +of an inward idea; where the body is +wholly penetrated by the soul, and spiritualized +even to a state of glory, and like a transparent +substance, the matter, in its own nature darkness, +becomes altogether a vehicle and fixture of light, a +means of developing its beauties, and unfolding its +wealth of various colours without disturbing its +unity, or causing a division of the parts. The +sportive ideal, on the contrary, consists in the perfect +harmony and concord of the higher nature +with the animal, as with its ruling principle and its +acknowledged regent. The understanding and +practical reason are represented as the willing +slaves of the senses and appetites, and of the passions +arising out of them. Hence we may admit +the appropriateness to the old comedy, as a work +of defined art, of allusions and descriptions, which +morality can never justify, and, only with reference +to the author himself, and only as being the effect +or rather the cause of the circumstances in which +he wrote, can consent even to palliate. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The old comedy rose to its perfection in Aristophanes, +and in him also it died with the freedom of +Greece. Then arose a species of drama, more fitly +called dramatic entertainment than comedy, but of +which, nevertheless, our modern comedy (Shakespeare's +altogether excepted) is the genuine descendant. +Euripides had already brought tragedy lower +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page011">[pg 011]</span><a name="Pg011" id="Pg011" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +down and by many steps nearer to the real world +than his predecessors had ever done, and the passionate +admiration which Menander and Philemon +expressed for him, and their open avowals that he +was their great master, entitle us to consider their +dramas as of a middle species, between tragedy and +comedy,—not the tragi-comedy, or thing of heterogeneous +parts, but a complete whole, founded on +principles of its own. Throughout we find the +drama of Menander distinguishing itself from tragedy, +but not as the genuine old comedy, contrasting +with, and opposing it. Tragedy, indeed, carried +the thoughts into the mythologic world, in order +to raise the emotions, the fears, and the hopes, +which convince the inmost heart that their final +cause is not to be discovered in the limits of mere +mortal life, and force us into a presentiment, however +dim, of a state in which those struggles of inward +free will with outward necessity, which form +the true subject of the tragedian, shall be reconciled +and solved;—the entertainment or new comedy, +on the other hand, remained within the circle of +experience. Instead of the tragic destiny, it introduced +the power of chance; even in the few fragments +of Menander and Philemon now remaining +to us, we find many exclamations and reflections +concerning chance and fortune, as in the tragic +poets concerning destiny. In tragedy, the moral +law, either as obeyed or violated, above all consequences—its +own maintenance or violation +constituting the most important of all consequences—forms +the ground; the new comedy, +and our modern comedy in general (Shakespeare +excepted as before) lies in prudence or imprudence, +enlightened or misled self-love. The whole moral +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page012">[pg 012]</span><a name="Pg012" id="Pg012" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +system of the entertainment exactly like that of +fable, consists in rules of prudence, with an exquisite +conciseness, and at the same time an +exhaustive fulness of sense. An old critic said +that tragedy was the flight or elevation of life, +comedy (that of Menander) its arrangement or +ordonnance. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Add to these features a portrait-like truth of +character,—not so far indeed as that a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">bona fide</span></span> +individual should be described or imagined, but yet +so that the features which give interest and permanence +to the class should be individualized. The old +tragedy moved in an ideal world,—the old comedy +in a fantastic world. As the entertainment, or new +comedy, restrained the creative activity both of +the fancy and the imagination, it indemnified the +understanding in appealing to the judgment for the +probability of the scenes represented. The ancients +themselves acknowledged the new comedy as an +exact copy of real life. The grammarian, Aristophanes, +somewhat affectedly exclaimed:—<span class="tei tei-q">“O Life +and Menander! which of you two imitated the +other?”</span> In short the form of this species of drama +was poetry, the stuff or matter was prose. It was +prose rendered delightful by the blandishments +and measured motions of the muse. Yet even this +was not universal. The mimes of Sophron, so +passionately admired by Plato, were written in +prose, and were scenes out of real life conducted +in dialogue. The exquisite feast of Adonis +(Συρακούσιαι ῆ Ἀδωνιάζουσαι) in Theocritus, we are +told, with some others of his eclogues, were close +imitations of certain mimes of Sophron—free translations +of the prose into hexameters. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It will not be improper, in this place, to make a +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page013">[pg 013]</span><a name="Pg013" id="Pg013" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +few remarks on the remarkable character and functions +of the chorus in the Greek tragic drama. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The chorus entered from below, close by the +orchestra, and there, pacing to and fro during the +choral odes, performed their solemn measured +dance. In the centre of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">orchestra</span></span>, directly +over against the middle of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">scene</span></span>, there stood an +elevation with steps in the shape of a large altar, +as high as the boards of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">logeion</span></span> or moveable +stage. This elevation was named the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">thymele</span></span> +(θυμέλη), and served to recall the origin and original +purpose of the chorus, as an altar-song in honour +of the presiding deity. Here, and on these steps +the persons of the chorus sate collectively, when +they were not singing; attending to the dialogue +as spectators, and acting as (what in truth they +were) the ideal representatives of the real audience, +and of the poet himself in his own character, +assuming the supposed impressions made by the +drama, in order to direct and rule them. But when +the chorus itself formed part of the dialogue, then +the leader of the band, the foreman, or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">coryphæus</span></span>, +ascended, as some think, the level summit of the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">thymele</span></span> in order to command the stage, or, perhaps, +the whole chorus advanced to the front of the orchestra, +and thus put themselves in ideal connection, +as it were, with the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dramatis personæ</span></span> there acting. +This <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">thymele</span></span> was in the centre of the whole edifice, +all the measurements were calculated, and the semi-circle +of the amphitheatre was drawn from this +point. It had a double use, a twofold purpose; it +constantly reminded the spectators of the origin of +tragedy as a religious service, and declared itself +as the ideal representative of the audience by +having its place exactly in the point, to which all +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page014">[pg 014]</span><a name="Pg014" id="Pg014" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the radii from the different seats or benches converged. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this double character, as constituent parts, +and yet at the same time as spectators, of the drama, +the chorus could not but tend to enforce the unity +of place;—not on the score of any supposed improbability, +which the understanding or common sense +might detect in a change of place;—but because the +senses themselves put it out of the power of any +imagination to conceive a place coming to, and +going away from the persons, instead of the persons +changing their place. Yet there are instances, +in which, during the silence of the chorus, the poets +have hazarded this by a change in that part of the +scenery which represented the more distant objects +to the eye of the spectator—a demonstrative proof, +that this alternately extolled and ridiculed unity +(as ignorantly ridiculed as extolled) was grounded +on no essential principle of reason, but arose out of +circumstances which the poet could not remove, +and therefore took up into the form of the drama, +and co-organised it with all the other parts into a +living whole. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The Greek tragedy may rather be compared to +our serious opera than to the tragedies of Shakespeare; +nevertheless, the difference is far greater +than the likeness. In the opera all is subordinated +to the music, the dresses, and the scenery;—the +poetry is a mere vehicle for articulation, and as +little pleasure is lost by ignorance of the Italian +language, so is little gained by the knowledge of it. +But in the Greek drama all was but as instruments +and accessaries to the poetry; and hence we should +form a better notion of the choral music from the +solemn hymns and psalms of austere church music +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page015">[pg 015]</span><a name="Pg015" id="Pg015" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +than from any species of theatrical singing. A +single flute or pipe was the ordinary accompaniment; +and it is not to be supposed, that any display +of musical power was allowed to obscure the distinct +hearing of the words. On the contrary, the +evident purpose was to render the words more +audible, and to secure by the elevations and pauses +greater facility of understanding the poetry. For +the choral songs are, and ever must have been, the +most difficult part of the tragedy; there occur in +them the most involved verbal compounds, the +newest expressions, the boldest images, the most +recondite allusions. Is it credible that the poets +would, one and all, have been thus prodigal of the +stores of art and genius, if they had known that in +the representation the whole must have been lost +to the audience,—at a time too, when the means of +after publication were so difficult and expensive, +and the copies of their works so slowly and narrowly +circulated? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The masks also must be considered—their vast +variety and admirable workmanship. Of this we +retain proof by the marble masks which represented +them; but to this in the real mask we must add the +thinness of the substance and the exquisite fitting +on to the head of the actor; so that not only were +the very eyes painted with a single opening left for +the pupil of the actor's eye, but in some instances, +even the iris itself was painted, when the colour +was a known characteristic of the divine or heroic +personage represented. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Finally, I will note down those fundamental +characteristics which contradistinguish the ancient +literature from the modern generally, but which +more especially appear in prominence in the tragic +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page016">[pg 016]</span><a name="Pg016" id="Pg016" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +drama. The ancient was allied to statuary, the +modern refers to painting. In the first there is a +predominance of rhythm and melody, in the second +of harmony and counterpoint. The Greeks idolized +the finite, and therefore were the masters of all grace, +elegance, proportion, fancy, dignity, majesty—of +whatever, in short, is capable of being definitely +conveyed by defined forms or thoughts: the moderns +revere the infinite, and affect the indefinite as a +vehicle of the infinite;—hence their passions, their +obscure hopes and fears, their wandering through +the unknown, their grander moral feelings, their +more august conception of man as man, their +future rather than their past—in a word, their +sublimity. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page017">[pg 017]</span><a name="Pg017" id="Pg017" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc7" id="toc7"></a> +<a name="pdf8" id="pdf8"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Progress Of The Drama.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Let two persons join in the same scheme to +ridicule a third, and either take advantage of, +or invent, some story for that purpose, and mimicry +will have already produced a sort of rude comedy. +It becomes an inviting treat to the populace, and +gains an additional zest and burlesque by following +the already established plan of tragedy; and the +first man of genius who seizes the idea, and reduces +it into form,—into a work of art,—by metre and +music, is the Aristophanes of the country. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How just this account is will appear from the +fact that in the first or old comedy of the Athenians, +most of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dramatis personæ</span></span> were living characters +introduced under their own names; and no doubt, +their ordinary dress, manner, person and voice +were closely mimicked. In less favourable states +of society, as that of England in the middle ages, +the beginnings of comedy would be constantly +taking place from the mimics and satirical minstrels; +but from want of fixed abode, popular government, +and the successive attendance of the same auditors, +it would still remain in embryo. I shall, perhaps, +have occasion to observe that this remark is not +without importance in explaining the essential +differences of the modern and ancient theatres. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Phenomena, similar to those which accompanied +the origin of tragedy and comedy among the +Greeks, would take place among the Romans much +more slowly, and the drama would, in any case, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page018">[pg 018]</span><a name="Pg018" id="Pg018" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +have much longer remained in its first irregular +form from the character of the people, their continual +engagements in wars of conquest, the nature +of their government, and their rapidly increasing +empire. But, however this might have been, the +conquest of Greece precluded both the process and +the necessity of it; and the Roman stage at once +presented imitations or translations of the Greek +drama. This continued till the perfect establishment +of Christianity. Some attempts, indeed, were +made to adapt the persons of Scriptural or ecclesiastical +history to the drama; and sacred plays, it +is probable, were not unknown in Constantinople +under the emperors of the East. The first of the +kind is, I believe, the only one preserved,—namely, +the Χριστὸς Πάσχων, or, <span class="tei tei-q">“Christ in his sufferings,”</span> +by Gregory Nazianzen,—possibly written in +consequence of the prohibition of profane literature +to the Christians by the apostate Julian. In the +West, however, the enslaved and debauched Roman +world became too barbarous for any theatrical +exhibitions more refined than those of pageants +and chariot-races; while the spirit of Christianity, +which in its most corrupt form still breathed general +humanity, whenever controversies of faith were +not concerned, had done away the cruel combats +of the gladiators, and the loss of the distant provinces +prevented the possibility of exhibiting the +engagements of wild beasts. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I pass, therefore, at once to the feudal ages +which soon succeeded, confining my observation to +this country; though, indeed, the same remark +with very few alterations will apply to all the +other states, into which the great empire was +broken. Ages of darkness succeeded;—not, indeed, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page019">[pg 019]</span><a name="Pg019" id="Pg019" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the darkness of Russia or of the barbarous +lands unconquered by Rome; for from the time +of Honorius to the destruction of Constantinople +and the consequent introduction of ancient literature +into Europe, there was a continued succession +of individual intellects;—the golden chain was +never wholly broken, though the connecting links +were often of baser metal. A dark cloud, like +another sky, covered the entire cope of heaven,—but +in this place it thinned away, and white stains +of light showed a half eclipsed star behind it,—in +that place it was rent asunder, and a star +passed across the opening in all its brightness, +and then vanished. Such stars exhibited themselves +only; surrounding objects did not partake +of their light. There were deep wells of knowledge, +but no fertilizing rills and rivulets. For +the drama, society was altogether a state of chaos, +out of which it was, for a while at least, to proceed +anew, as if there had been none before it. And +yet it is not undelightful to contemplate the +education of good from evil. The ignorance of +the great mass of our countrymen was the efficient +cause of the reproduction of the drama; +and the preceding darkness and the returning +light were alike necessary in order to the creation +of a Shakespeare. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The drama re-commenced in England, as it first +began in Greece, in religion. The people were not +able to read,—the priesthood were unwilling that +they should read; and yet their own interest +compelled them not to leave the people wholly +ignorant of the great events of sacred history. +They did that, therefore, by scenic representations, +which in after ages it has been attempted to do in +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page020">[pg 020]</span><a name="Pg020" id="Pg020" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Roman Catholic countries by pictures. They presented +Mysteries, and often at great expense; and +reliques of this system still remain in the south of +Europe, and indeed throughout Italy, where at +Christmas the convents and the great nobles rival +each other in the scenic representation of the +birth of Christ and its circumstances. I heard +two instances mentioned to me at different times, +one in Sicily and the other in Rome, of noble +devotees, the ruin of whose fortunes was said to +have commenced in the extravagant expense +which had been incurred in presenting the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">præsepe</span></span> or manger. But these Mysteries, in +order to answer their design, must not only be +instructive, but entertaining; and as, when they +became so, the people began to take pleasure in +acting them themselves—in interloping—(against +which the priests seem to have fought hard and +yet in vain) the most ludicrous images were +mixed with the most awful personations; and +whatever the subject might be, however sublime, +however pathetic, yet the Vice and the Devil, +who are the genuine antecessors of Harlequin +and the Clown, were necessary component parts. +I have myself a piece of this kind, which I transcribed +a few years ago at Helmstadt, in Germany, +on the education of Eve's children, in +which after the fall and repentance of Adam, the +offended Maker, as in proof of his reconciliation, +condescends to visit them, and to catechise the +children,—who with a noble contempt of chronology +are all brought together from Abel to Noah. +The good children say the ten Commandments, +the Belief, and the Lord's Prayer; but Cain and +his rout, after he had received a box on the ear +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page021">[pg 021]</span><a name="Pg021" id="Pg021" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +for not taking off his hat, and afterwards offering +his left hand, is prompted by the devil so to +blunder in the Lord's Prayer as to reverse the +petitions and say it backward! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Unaffectedly I declare I feel pain at repetitions +like these, however innocent. As historical documents +they are valuable; but I am sensible that +what I can read with my eye with perfect innocence, +I cannot without inward fear and +misgivings pronounce with my tongue. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Let me, however, be acquitted of presumption +if I say that I cannot agree with Mr. Malone, +that our ancestors did not perceive the ludicrous +in these things, or that they paid no separate +attention to the serious and comic parts. Indeed +his own statement contradicts it. For what purpose +should the Vice leap upon the Devil's back +and belabour him, but to produce this separate +attention? The people laughed heartily, no +doubt. Nor can I conceive any meaning attached +to the words <span class="tei tei-q">“separate attention,”</span> that +is not fully answered by one part of an exhibition +exciting seriousness or pity, and the other +raising mirth and loud laughter. That they felt +no impiety in the affair is most true. For it is +the very essence of that system of Christian polytheism, +which in all its essentials is now fully as +gross in Spain, in Sicily, and the South of Italy, as +it ever was in England in the days of Henry VI. +(nay, more so, for a Wicliffe had not then appeared +only, but scattered the good seed widely),—it +is an essential part, I say, of that system to draw +the mind wholly from its own inward whispers and +quiet discriminations, and to habituate the conscience +to pronounce sentence in every case according +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page022">[pg 022]</span><a name="Pg022" id="Pg022" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +to the established verdicts of the church and +the casuists. I have looked through volume after +volume of the most approved casuists,—and still I +find disquisitions whether this or that act is right, +and under what circumstances, to a minuteness +that makes reasoning ridiculous, and of a callous +and unnatural immodesty, to which none but a +monk could harden himself, who has been stripped +of all the tender charities of life, yet is goaded on +to make war against them by the unsubdued +hauntings of our meaner nature, even as dogs are +said to get the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">hydrophobia</span></span> from excessive thirst. +I fully believe that our ancestors laughed as +heartily, as their posterity do at Grimaldi;—and +not having been told that they would be punished +for laughing, they thought it very innocent;—and +if their priests had left out murder in the catalogue +of their prohibitions (as indeed they did under +certain circumstances of heresy), the greater part +of them,—the moral instincts common to all men +having been smothered and kept from development,—would +have thought as little of murder. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +However this may be, the necessity of at once +instructing and gratifying the people produced the +great distinction between the Greek and the English +theatres;—for to this we must attribute the +origin of tragi-comedy, or a representation of +human events more lively, nearer the truth, and +permitting a larger field of moral instruction, a +more ample exhibition of the recesses of the human +heart, under all the trials and circumstances that +most concern us, than was known or guessed at by +Æschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides;—and at the +same time we learn to account for, and—relatively +to the author—perceive the necessity of, the Fool +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page023">[pg 023]</span><a name="Pg023" id="Pg023" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +or Clown or both, as the substitutes of the Vice +and the Devil, which our ancestors had been so +accustomed to see in every exhibition of the stage, +that they could not feel any performance perfect +without them. Even to this day in Italy, every +opera—(even Metastasio obeyed the claim throughout)—must +have six characters, generally two pairs +of cross lovers, a tyrant and a confidant, or a +father and two confidants, themselves lovers;—and +when a new opera appears, it is the universal +fashion to ask—which is the tyrant, which the +lover? &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is the especial honour of Christianity, that in +its worst and most corrupted form it cannot wholly +separate itself from morality;—whereas the other +religions in their best form (I do not include +Mohammedanism, which is only an anomalous corruption +of Christianity, like Swedenborgianism) +have no connection with it. The very impersonation +of moral evil under the name of Vice, +facilitated all other impersonations; and hence we +see that the Mysteries were succeeded by Moralities, +or dialogues and plots of allegorical personages. +Again, some character in real history had become +so famous, so proverbial, as Nero for instance, that +they were introduced instead of the moral quality, +for which they were so noted;—and in this manner +the stage was moving on to the absolute production +of heroic and comic real characters, when the restoration +of literature, followed by the ever-blessed +Reformation, let in upon the kingdom not only new +knowledge, but new motive. A useful rivalry commenced +between the metropolis on the one hand,—the +residence, independently of the court and +nobles, of the most active and stirring spirits who +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page024">[pg 024]</span><a name="Pg024" id="Pg024" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +had not been regularly educated, or who, from mischance +or otherwise, had forsaken the beaten track +of preferment,—and the universities on the other. +The latter prided themselves on their closer approximation +to the ancient rules and ancient regularity—taking +the theatre of Greece, or rather its +dim reflection, the rhetorical tragedies of the poet +Seneca, as a perfect ideal, without any critical +collation of the times, origin, or circumstances;—whilst, +in the mean time, the popular writers, who +could not and would not abandon what they had +found to delight their countrymen sincerely, and +not merely from inquiries first put to the recollection +of rules, and answered in the affirmative, as if +it had been an arithmetical sum, did yet borrow +from the scholars whatever they advantageously +could, consistently with their own peculiar means +of pleasing. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And here let me pause for a moment's contemplation +of this interesting subject. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +We call, for we see and feel, the swan and the +dove both transcendantly beautiful. As absurd as +it would be to institute a comparison between their +separate claims to beauty from any abstract rule +common to both, without reference to the life and +being of the animals themselves,—or as if, having +first seen the dove, we abstracted its outlines, gave +them a false generalization, called them the principles +or ideal of bird-beauty, and then proceeded +to criticise the swan or the eagle;—not less absurd +is it to pass judgment on the works of a poet on +the mere ground that they have been called by the +same class-name with the works of other poets in +other times and circumstances, or on any ground, +indeed, save that of their inappropriateness to their +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page025">[pg 025]</span><a name="Pg025" id="Pg025" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +own end and being, their want of significance, as +symbols or physiognomy. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O! few have there been among critics, who have +followed with the eye of the imagination the imperishable +yet ever wandering spirit of poetry +through its various metempsychoses, and consequent +metamorphoses;—or who have rejoiced in +the light of clear perception at beholding with +each new birth, with each rare <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">avatar</span></span>, the human +race frame to itself a new body, by assimilating +materials of nourishment out of its new circumstances, +and work for itself new organs of power +appropriate to the new sphere of its motion and +activity! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have before spoken of the Romance, or the +language formed out of the decayed Roman and +the Northern tongues; and comparing it with the +Latin, we find it less perfect in simplicity and relation—the +privileges of a language formed by the +mere attraction of homogeneous parts;—but yet +more rich, more expressive and various, as one +formed by more obscure affinities out of a chaos of +apparently heterogeneous atoms. As more than a +metaphor,—as an analogy of this, I have named +the true genuine modern poetry the romantic; and +the works of Shakespeare are romantic poetry, revealing +itself in the drama. If the tragedies of +Sophocles are in the strict sense of the word +tragedies, and the comedies of Aristophanes comedies, +we must emancipate ourselves from a false +association arising from misapplied names, and find +a new word for the plays of Shakespeare. For they +are, in the ancient sense, neither tragedies nor +comedies, nor both in one,—but a different <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">genus</span></span>, +diverse in kind, and not merely different in degree. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page026">[pg 026]</span><a name="Pg026" id="Pg026" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +They may be called romantic dramas, or dramatic +romances. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A deviation from the simple forms and unities +of the ancient stage is an essential principle, and, +of course, an appropriate excellence, of the romantic +drama. For these unities were to a great +extent the natural form of that which in its +elements was homogeneous, and the representation +of which was addressed pre-eminently to the +outward senses;—and though the fable, the +language, and the characters appealed to the +reason rather than to the mere understanding, +inasmuch as they supposed an ideal state rather +than referred to an existing reality,—yet it was a +reason which was obliged to accommodate itself +to the senses, and so far became a sort of more +elevated understanding. On the other hand, the +romantic poetry—the Shakespearian drama—appealed +to the imagination rather than to the +senses, and to the reason as contemplating our +inward nature, and the workings of the passions +in their most retired recesses. But the reason, +as reason, is independent of time and space; it +has nothing to do with them: and hence the +certainties of reason have been called eternal +truths. As for example—the endless properties +of the circle:—what connection have they with +this or that age, with this or that country?—The +reason is aloof from time and space; the imagination +is an arbitrary controller over both;—and +if only the poet have such power of exciting our +internal emotions as to make us present to the +scene in imagination chiefly, he acquires the right +and privilege of using time and space as they +exist in imagination, and obedient only to the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page027">[pg 027]</span><a name="Pg027" id="Pg027" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +laws by which the imagination itself acts. These +laws it will be my object and aim to point out as +the examples occur, which illustrate them. But +here let me remark what can never be too often +reflected on by all who would intelligently study +the works either of the Athenian dramatists, or of +Shakespeare, that the very essence of the former +consists in the sternest separation of the diverse in +kind and the disparate in the degree, whilst the +latter delights in interlacing, by a rainbow-like +transfusion of hues, the one with the other. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And here it will be necessary to say a few words +on the stage and on stage-illusion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A theatre, in the widest sense of the word, is +the general term for all places of amusement +through the ear or eye, in which men assemble in +order to be amused by some entertainment presented +to all at the same time and in common. +Thus an old Puritan divine says:—<span class="tei tei-q">“Those who +attend public worship and sermons only to amuse +themselves, make a theatre of the church, and turn +God's house into the devil's. +<span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style="font-style: italic">Theatra ædes diabololatricæ.</span></span>”</span> +The most important and dignified +species of this <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">genus</span></span> is, doubtless, the stage +(<span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style="font-style: italic">res +theatralis histrionica</span></span>), which, in addition to the generic +definition above given, may be characterized in +its idea, or according to what it does, or ought to, +aim at, as a combination of several or of all the +fine arts in an harmonious whole, having a distinct +end of its own, to which the peculiar end of each +of the component arts, taken separately, is made +subordinate and subservient,—that, namely, of +imitating reality—whether external things, actions, +or passions—-under a semblance of reality. +Thus, Claude imitates a landscape at sunset, but +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page028">[pg 028]</span><a name="Pg028" id="Pg028" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +only as a picture; while a forest-scene is not presented +to the spectators as a picture, but as a +forest; and though, in the full sense of the word, +we are no more deceived by the one than by the +other, yet are our feelings very differently affected; +and the pleasure derived from the one is not composed +of the same elements as that afforded by the +other, even on the supposition that the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quantum</span></span> of +both were equal. In the former, a picture, it is a +condition of all genuine delight that we should +not be deceived; in the latter, stage-scenery (inasmuch +as its principle end is not in or for itself, as +is the case in a picture, but to be an assistance and +means to an end out of itself), its very purpose is +to produce as much illusion as its nature permits. +These, and all other stage presentations, are to +produce a sort of temporary half-faith, which the +spectator encourages in himself and supports by a +voluntary contribution on his own part, because +he knows that it is at all times in his power to see +the thing as it really is. I have often observed +that little children are actually deceived by stage-scenery, +never by pictures; though even these +produce an effect on their impressible minds, +which they do not on the minds of adults. The +child, if strongly impressed, does not indeed positively +think the picture to be the reality; but yet +he does not think the contrary. As Sir George +Beaumont was shewing me a very fine engraving +from Rubens, representing a storm at sea without +any vessel or boat introduced, my little boy, then +about five years old, came dancing and singing +into the room, and all at once (if I may so say) +<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">tumbled in</span></em> upon the print. He instantly started, +stood silent and motionless, with the strongest expression, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page029">[pg 029]</span><a name="Pg029" id="Pg029" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +first of wonder and then of grief in his +eyes and countenance, and at length said <span class="tei tei-q">“And +where is the ship? But that is sunk, and the men +are all drowned!”</span> still keeping his eyes fixed on +the print. Now what pictures are to little children, +stage illusion is to men, provided they retain +any part of the child's sensibility; except, that in +the latter instance, the suspension of the act of +comparison, which permits this sort of negative +belief, is somewhat more assisted by the will, than +in that of a child respecting a picture. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The true stage-illusion in this and in all other +things consists—not in the mind's judging it to be +a forest, but, in its remission of the judgment that +it is not a forest. And this subject of stage-illusion +is so important, and so many practical errors and +false criticisms may arise, and indeed have arisen, +either from reasoning on it as actual delusion (the +strange notion, on which the French critics built +up their theory, and on which the French poets +justify the construction of their tragedies), or +from denying it altogether (which seems the end +of Dr. Johnson's reasoning, and which, as extremes +meet, would lead to the very same consequences, +by excluding whatever would not be judged probable +by us in our coolest state of feeling, with all +our faculties in even balance), that these few remarks +will, I hope, be pardoned, if they should +serve either to explain or to illustrate the point. +For not only are we never absolutely deluded—or +any thing like it, but the attempt to cause the +highest delusion possible to beings in their senses +sitting in a theatre, is a gross fault, incident only +to low minds, which, feeling that they cannot +affect the heart or head permanently, endeavour to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page030">[pg 030]</span><a name="Pg030" id="Pg030" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +call forth the momentary affections. There ought +never to be more pain than is compatible with coexisting +pleasure, and to be amply repaid by +thought. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare found the infant stage demanding +an intermixture of ludicrous character as imperiously +as that of Greece did the chorus, and high +language accordant. And there are many advantages +in this;—a greater assimilation to nature, a +greater scope of power, more truths, and more +feelings;—the effects of contrast, as in Lear and +the Fool; and especially this, that the true +language of passion becomes sufficiently elevated +by your having previously heard, in the same +piece, the lighter conversation of men under no +strong emotion. The very nakedness of the stage, +too, was advantageous,—for the drama thence +became something between recitation and a representation; +and the absence or paucity of scenes +allowed a freedom from the laws of unity of place +and unity of time, the observance of which must +either confine the drama to as few subjects as may +be counted on the fingers, or involve gross improbabilities, +far more striking than the violation +would have caused. Thence, also, was precluded +the danger of a false ideal,—of aiming at more +than what is possible on the whole. What play +of the ancients, with reference to their ideal, does +not hold out more glaring absurdities than any in +Shakespeare? On the Greek plan a man could +more easily be a poet than a dramatist; upon our +plan more easily a dramatist than a poet. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page031">[pg 031]</span><a name="Pg031" id="Pg031" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc9" id="toc9"></a> +<a name="pdf10" id="pdf10"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">The Drama Generally, And Public Taste.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Unaccustomed to address such an audience, +and having lost by a long interval of confinement +the advantages of my former short schooling, +I had miscalculated in my last Lecture the proportion +of my matter to my time, and by bad +economy and unskilful management, the several +heads of my discourse failed in making the entire +performance correspond with the promise publicly +circulated in the weekly annunciation of the subjects +to be treated. It would indeed have been +wiser in me, and perhaps better on the whole, if I +had caused my Lectures to be announced only as +continuations of the main subject. But if I be, +as perforce I must be, gratified by the recollection +of whatever has appeared to give you pleasure, I +am conscious of something better, though less +flattering, a sense of unfeigned gratitude for your +forbearance with my defects. Like affectionate +guardians, you see without disgust the awkwardness, +and witness with sympathy the growing +pains, of a youthful endeavour, and look forward +with a hope, which is its own reward, to the +contingent results of practice—to its intellectual +maturity. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In my last address I defined poetry to be the +art, or whatever better term our language may +afford, of representing external nature and human +thoughts, both relatively to human affections, so as +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page032">[pg 032]</span><a name="Pg032" id="Pg032" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +to cause the production of as great immediate +pleasure in each part, as is compatible with the +largest possible sum of pleasure on the whole. +Now this definition applies equally to painting +and music as to poetry; and in truth the term +poetry is alike applicable to all three. The vehicle +alone constitutes the difference; and the term +<span class="tei tei-q">“poetry”</span> is rightly applied by eminence to +measured words, only because the sphere of their +action is far wider, the power of giving permanence +to them much more certain, and incomparably +greater the facility, by which men, not +defective by nature or disease, may be enabled to +derive habitual pleasure and instruction from +them. On my mentioning these considerations +to a painter of great genius, who had been, from +a most honourable enthusiasm, extolling his own +art, he was so struck with their truth, that he +exclaimed, <span class="tei tei-q">“I want no other arguments;—poetry, +that is, verbal poetry, must be the greatest; all +that proves final causes in the world, proves this; +it would be shocking to think otherwise!”</span>—And +in truth, deeply, O! far more than words can +express, as I venerate the Last Judgment and the +Prophets of Michel Angelo Buonarotti,—yet the +very pain which I repeatedly felt as I lost myself +in gazing upon them, the painful consideration +that their having been painted in +<span lang="it" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="it"><span style="font-style: italic">fresco</span></span> was the +sole cause that they had not been abandoned to all +the accidents of a dangerous transportation to a +distant capital, and that the same caprice, which +made the Neapolitan soldiery destroy all the exquisite +masterpieces on the walls of the church of +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Trinitado Monte</span></span>, after the retreat of their antagonist +barbarians, might as easily have made vanish +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page033">[pg 033]</span><a name="Pg033" id="Pg033" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the rooms and open gallery of Raffael, and the yet +more unapproachable wonders of the sublime +Florentine in the Sixtine Chapel, forced upon my +mind the reflection: How grateful the human +race ought to be that the works of Euclid, Newton, +Plato, Milton, Shakespeare, are not subjected +to similar contingencies,—that they and their +fellows, and the great, though inferior, peerage of +undying intellect, are secured;—secured even +from a second irruption of Goths and Vandals, in +addition to many other safeguards, by the vast +empire of English language, laws, and religion +founded in America, through the overflow of the +power and the virtue of my country;—and that +now the great and certain works of genuine fame +can only cease to act for mankind, when men +themselves cease to be men, or when the planet on +which they exist, shall have altered its relations, +or have ceased to be. Lord Bacon, in the language +of the gods, if I may use an Homeric phrase, has +expressed a similar thought:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by learning man excelleth +man in that wherein man excelleth beasts; that by learning +man ascendeth to the heavens and their motions, where in body he +cannot come, and the like; let us conclude with the dignity and +excellency of knowledge and learning in that whereunto man's +nature doth most aspire, which is immortality or continuance: for +to this tendeth generation, and raising of houses and families; to +this tend buildings, foundations, and monuments; to this tendeth +the desire of memory, fame, and celebration, and in effect the +strength of all other human desires. We see then how far the +monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments +of power, or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer +continued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the loss of a +syllable or letter; during which time, infinite palaces, temples, +castles, cities, have been decayed and demolished? It is not possible +to have the true pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, +Cæsar; no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later +years; for the originals cannot last, and the copies cannot but lose +of the life and truth. But the images of men's wits and knowledges +</span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page034">[pg 034]</span><a name="Pg034" id="Pg034" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-size: 90%"> +remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of +perpetual renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called images, +because they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of +others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding +ages: so that, if the invention of the ship was thought so +noble, which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, +and consociateth the most remote regions in participation of their +fruits; how much more are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, +pass through the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to participate +of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one of the +other?</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But let us now consider what the drama should +be. And first, it is not a copy, but an imitation, of +nature. This is the universal principle of the fine +arts. In all well laid out grounds what delight do +we feel from that balance and antithesis of feelings +and thoughts! How natural! we say;—but the +very wonder that caused the exclamation, implies +that we perceived art at the same moment. We +catch the hint from nature itself. Whenever in +mountains or cataracts we discover a likeness to +any thing artificial which yet we know is not artificial—what +pleasure! And so it is in appearances +known to be artificial, which appear to be natural. +This applies in due degrees, regulated by steady +good sense, from a clump of trees to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Paradise +Lost</span></span> or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span>. It would be easy to apply it to +painting and even, though with greater abstraction +of thought, and by more subtle yet equally just +analogies—to music. But this belongs to others; +suffice it that one great principle is common to all +the fine arts, a principle which probably is the +condition of all consciousness, without which we +should feel and imagine only by discontinuous +moments, and be plants or brute animals instead +of men;—I mean that ever-varying balance, or +balancing, of images, notions, or feelings, conceived +as in opposition to each other;—in short, the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page035">[pg 035]</span><a name="Pg035" id="Pg035" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +perception of identity and contrariety; the least +degree of which constitutes likeness, the greatest +absolute difference; but the infinite gradations between +these two form all the play and all the +interest of our intellectual and moral being, till it +leads us to a feeling and an object more awful than +it seems to me compatible with even the present subject +to utter aloud, though I am most desirous to +suggest it. For there alone are all things at once +different and the same; there alone, as the principle +of all things, does distinction exist unaided +by division; there are will and reason, succession +of time and unmoving eternity, infinite change and +ineffable rest!— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Return Alpheus! the dread voice is past</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Which shrunk thy streams!”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">——<span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Thou honour'd flood,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Smooth-<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">flowing</span></em> Avon, crown'd with vocal reeds,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That strain I heard, was of a higher mood!—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But now my <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">voice</span></em> proceeds.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +We may divide a dramatic poet's characteristics +before we enter into the component merits of any +one work, and with reference only to those things +which are to be the materials of all, into language, +passion, and character; always bearing in mind +that these must act and react on each other,—the +language inspired by the passion, and the language +and the passion modified and differenced by the +character. To the production of the highest excellencies +in these three, there are requisite in the +mind of the author;—good sense, talent, sensibility, +imagination;—and to the perfection of a +work we should add two faculties of lesser importance, +yet necessary for the ornaments and foliage +of the column and the roof—fancy and a quick +sense of beauty. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page036">[pg 036]</span><a name="Pg036" id="Pg036" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +As to language;—it cannot be supposed that +the poet should make his characters say all that +they would, or that, his whole drama considered, +each scene, or paragraph should be such as, on cool +examination, we can conceive it likely that men in +such situations would say, in that order, or with +that perfection. And yet, according to my feelings, +it is a very inferior kind of poetry, in which, +as in the French tragedies, men are made to talk +in a style which few indeed even of the wittiest +can be supposed to converse in, and which both is, +and on a moment's reflection appears to be, the +natural produce of the hot-bed of vanity, namely, +the closet of an author, who is actuated originally +by a desire to excite surprise and wonderment at +his own superiority to other men,—instead of +having felt so deeply on certain subjects, or in +consequence of certain imaginations, as to make it +almost a necessity of his nature to seek for sympathy,—no +doubt, with that honourable desire of +permanent action, which distinguishes genius.—Where +then is the difference?—In this that each +part should be proportionate, though the whole +may be perhaps, impossible. At all events, it +should be compatible with sound sense and logic in +the mind of the poet himself. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is to be lamented that we judge of books by +books, instead of referring what we read to our +own experience. One great use of books is to +make their contents a motive for observation. The +German tragedies have in some respects been justly +ridiculed. In them the dramatist often becomes a +novelist in his directions to the actors, and thus +degrades tragedy into pantomime. Yet still the +consciousness of the poet's mind must be diffused +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page037">[pg 037]</span><a name="Pg037" id="Pg037" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +over that of the reader or spectator; but he himself, +according to his genius, elevates us, and by +being always in keeping, prevents us from perceiving +any strangeness, though we feel great +exultation. Many different kinds of style may be +admirable, both in different men, and in different +parts of the same poem. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +See the different language which strong feelings +may justify in Shylock, and learn from Shakespeare's +conduct of that character the terrible force +of every plain and calm diction, when known to +proceed from a resolved and impassioned man. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is especially with reference to the drama, and +its characteristics in any given nation, or at any +particular period, that the dependence of genius on +the public taste becomes a matter of the deepest +importance. I do not mean that taste which +springs merely from caprice or fashionable imitation, +and which, in fact, genius can, and by degrees +will, create for itself; but that which arises out of +wide-grasping and heart-enrooted causes, which +is epidemic, and in the very air that all breathe. +This it is which kills, or withers, or corrupts. +Socrates, indeed, might walk arm in arm with +Hygeia, whilst pestilence, with a thousand furies +running to and fro, and clashing against each +other in a complexity and agglomeration of horrors, +was shooting her darts of fire and venom all around +him. Even such was Milton; yea, and such, in +spite of all that has been babbled by his critics in +pretended excuse for his damning, because for them +too profound excellencies,—such was Shakespeare. +But alas! the exceptions prove the rule. For who +will dare to force his way out of the crowd,—not +of the mere vulgar,—but of the vain and banded +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page038">[pg 038]</span><a name="Pg038" id="Pg038" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +aristocracy of intellect, and presume to join the +almost supernatural beings that stand by themselves +aloof? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Of this diseased epidemic influence there are two +forms especially preclusive of tragic worth. The +first is the necessary growth of a sense and love of +the ludicrous, and a morbid sensibility of the assimilative +power,—an inflammation produced by +cold and weakness,—which in the boldest bursts of +passion will lie in wait for a jeer at any phrase, +that may have an accidental coincidence in the +mere words with something base or trivial. For +instance,—to express woods, not on a plain, but +clothing a hill, which overlooks a valley, or dell, +or river, or the sea,—the trees rising one above +another, as the spectators in an ancient theatre,—I +know no other word in our language (bookish +and pedantic terms out of the question), but <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">hanging</span></em> +woods, the +<span lang="la" class="tei tei-foreign" xml:lang="la"><span style="font-style: italic">sylvæ superimpendentes</span></span> +of Catullus; +yet let some wit call out in a slang tone,—<span class="tei tei-q">“the +gallows!”</span> and a peal of laughter would damn the +play. Hence it is that so many dull pieces have +had a decent run, only because nothing unusual +above, or absurd below, mediocrity furnished an +occasion,—a spark for the explosive materials collected +behind the orchestra. But it would take a +volume of no ordinary size, however laconically the +sense were expressed, if it were meant to instance +the effects, and unfold all the causes, of this disposition +upon the moral, intellectual, and even +physical character of a people, with its influences +on domestic life and individual deportment. A +good document upon this subject would be the +history of Paris society and of French, that is, +Parisian, literature from the commencement of the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page039">[pg 039]</span><a name="Pg039" id="Pg039" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +latter half of the reign of Louis XIV. to that of +Buonaparte, compared with the preceding philosophy +and poetry even of Frenchmen themselves. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The second form, or more properly, perhaps, +another distinct cause, of this diseased disposition +is matter of exultation to the philanthropist and +philosopher, and of regret to the poet, the painter, +and the statuary alone, and to them only as poets, +painters, and statuaries;—namely, the security, the +comparative equability, and ever increasing sameness +of human life. Men are now so seldom thrown +into wild circumstances, and violences of excitement, +that the language of such states, the laws of +association of feeling with thought, the starts and +strange far-flights of the assimilative power on the +slightest and least obvious likeness presented by +thoughts, words, or objects,—these are all judged +of by authority, not by actual experience,—by what +men have been accustomed to regard as symbols of +these states, and not the natural symbols, or self-manifestations +of them. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Even so it is in the language of man, and in +that of nature. The sound <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sun</span></span>, or the figures +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">s</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">u</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">n</span></span>, are purely arbitrary modes of recalling the +object, and for visual mere objects they are not +only sufficient, but have infinite advantages from +their very nothingness <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">per se</span></span>. But the language +of nature is a subordinate <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Logos</span></span>, that was in the +beginning, and was with the thing it represented, +and was the thing it represented. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Now the language of Shakespeare, in his <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> +for instance, is a something intermediate between +these two; or rather it is the former blended with +the latter,—the arbitrary, not merely recalling the +cold notion of the thing, but expressing the reality +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page040">[pg 040]</span><a name="Pg040" id="Pg040" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +of it, and, as arbitrary language is an heir-loom of +the human race, being itself a part of that which +it manifests. What shall I deduce from the preceding +positions? Even this,—the appropriate, +the never to be too much valued advantage of the +theatre, if only the actors were what we know they +have been,—a delightful, yet most effectual remedy +for this dead palsy of the public mind. What +would appear mad or ludicrous in a book, when presented +to the senses under the form of reality, and +with the truth of nature, supplies a species of actual +experience. This is indeed the special privilege of +a great actor over a great poet. No part was ever +played in perfection, but nature justified herself in +the hearts of all her children, in what state soever +they were, short of absolute moral exhaustion, or +downright stupidity. There is no time given to +ask questions, or to pass judgments; we are taken +by storm, and, though in the histrionic art many a +clumsy counterfeit, by caricature of one or two +features, may gain applause as a fine likeness, yet +never was the very thing rejected as a counterfeit. +O! when I think of the inexhaustible mine of virgin +treasure in our Shakespeare, that I have been +almost daily reading him since I was ten years old,—that +the thirty intervening years have been unintermittingly +and not fruitlessly employed in +the study of the Greek, Latin, English, Italian, +Spanish, and German <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">belle lettrists</span></span>, and the last +fifteen years in addition, far more intensely in the +analysis of the laws of life and reason as they exist +in man,—and that upon every step I have made +forward in taste, in acquisition of facts from history +or my own observation, and in knowledge of the +different laws of being and their apparent exceptions, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page041">[pg 041]</span><a name="Pg041" id="Pg041" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +from accidental collision of disturbing forces,—that +at every new accession of information, after +every successful exercise of meditation, and every +fresh presentation of experience, I have unfailingly +discovered a proportionate increase of wisdom and +intuition in Shakespeare;—when I know this, and +know too, that by a conceivable and possible, though +hardly to be expected, arrangement of the British +theatres, not all, indeed, but a large, a very large, +proportion of this indefinite all—(round which no +comprehension has yet drawn the line of circumscription, +so as to say to itself, <span class="tei tei-q">“I have seen the +whole”</span>)—might be sent into the heads and hearts—into +the very souls of the mass of mankind, to +whom, except by this living comment and interpretation, +it must remain for ever a sealed volume, +a deep well without a wheel or a windlass;—it +seems to me a pardonable enthusiasm to steal away +from sober likelihood, and share in so rich a feast +in the faery world of possibility! Yet even in the +grave cheerfulness of a circumspect hope, much, +very much, might be done; enough, assuredly, +to furnish a kind and strenuous nature with ample +motives for the attempt to effect what may be +effected. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page043">[pg 043]</span><a name="Pg043" id="Pg043" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc11" id="toc11"></a> +<a name="pdf12" id="pdf12"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Shakespeare, A Poet Generally.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Clothed in radiant armour, and authorized by +titles sure and manifold, as a poet, Shakespeare +came forward to demand the throne of fame, as the +dramatic poet of England. His excellences compelled +even his contemporaries to seat him on that +throne, although there were giants in those days +contending for the same honour. Hereafter I +would fain endeavour to make out the title of the +English drama as created by, and existing in, +Shakespeare, and its right to the supremacy of +dramatic excellence in general. But he had shown +himself a poet, previously to his appearance as a +dramatic poet; and had no <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, +no <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span>, no <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry IV.</span></span>, +no <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Twelfth Night</span></span> ever appeared, we +must have admitted that Shakespeare possessed the +chief, if not every, requisite of a poet,—deep feeling +and exquisite sense of beauty, both as exhibited +to the eye in the combinations of form, and to the +ear in sweet and appropriate melody; that these +feelings were under the command of his own will; +that in his very first productions he projected his +mind out of his own particular being, and felt, and +made others feel, on subjects no way connected +with himself, except by force of contemplation and +that sublime faculty by which a great mind becomes +that on which it meditates. To this must be +added that affectionate love of nature and natural +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page044">[pg 044]</span><a name="Pg044" id="Pg044" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +objects, without which no man could have observed +so steadily, or painted so truly and passionately, +the very minutest beauties of the external world:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Mark the poor wretch; to overshoot his troubles,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">How he outruns the wind, and with what care,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The many musits through the which he goes</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Sometimes he runs among the flock of sheep,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And sometime sorteth with the herd of deer:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Danger deviseth shifts, wit waits on fear.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For there his smell with others' being mingled,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With much ado, the cold fault cleanly out,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Then do they spend their mouths; echo replies,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As if another chase were in the skies.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“By this poor Wat far off, upon a hill,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To harken if his foes pursue him still:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Anon their loud alarums he doth hear,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And now his grief may be compared well</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To one sore-sick, that hears the passing bell.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Turn, and return, indenting with the way:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Each envious briar his weary legs doth scratch,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For misery is trodden on by many,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And being low, never relieved by any.”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus and Adonis.</span></span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And the preceding description:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“But lo! from forth a copse that neighbours by,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A breeding jennet, lusty, young and proud,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +is much more admirable, but in parts less fitted for +quotation. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page045">[pg 045]</span><a name="Pg045" id="Pg045" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Moreover Shakespeare had shown that he possessed +fancy, considered as the faculty of bringing +together images dissimilar in the main by some one +point or more of likeness, as in such a passage as +this:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Full gently now she takes him by the hand,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A lily prisoned in a jail of snow,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or ivory in an alabaster band:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">So white a friend ingirts so white a foe!”</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And still mounting the intellectual ladder, he +had as unequivocally proved the indwelling in his +mind of imagination, or the power by which one +image or feeling is made to modify many others, +and by a sort of fusion to force many into one;—that +which afterwards showed itself in such might +and energy in Lear, where the deep anguish of a +father spreads the feeling of ingratitude and cruelty +over the very elements of heaven;—and which, +combining many circumstances into one moment of +consciousness, tends to produce that ultimate end +of all human thought and human feeling, unity, +and thereby the reduction of the spirit to its principle +and fountain, who is alone truly one. Various +are the workings of this the greatest faculty of the +human mind, both passionate and tranquil. In +its tranquil and purely pleasurable operation, it +acts chiefly by creating out of many things, as they +would have appeared in the description of an ordinary +mind, detailed in unimpassioned succession, a +oneness, even as nature, the greatest of poets, acts +upon us, when we open our eyes upon an extended +prospect. Thus the flight of Adonis in the dusk of +the evening:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Look! how a bright star shooteth from the sky;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">So glides he in the night from Venus' eye!”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page046">[pg 046]</span><a name="Pg046" id="Pg046" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How many images and feelings are here brought +together without effort and without discord, in the +beauty of Adonis, the rapidity of his flight, the +yearning, yet hopelessness, of the enamoured gazer, +while a shadowy ideal character is thrown over the +whole! Or this power acts by impressing the stamp +of humanity, and of human feelings, on inanimate +or mere natural objects:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The sun ariseth in his majesty,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Who doth the world so gloriously behold,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Or again, it acts by so carrying on the eye of +the reader as to make him almost lose the consciousness +of words,—to make him see every thing +flashed, as Wordsworth has grandly and appropriately +said:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Flashed</span></span> upon the inward eye</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Which is the bliss of solitude;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and this without exciting any painful or laborious +attention, without any anatomy of description (a +fault not uncommon in descriptive poetry),—but +with the sweetness and easy movement of nature. +This energy is an absolute essential of poetry, and +of itself would constitute a poet, though not one of +the highest class;—it is, however, a most hopeful +symptom, and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus and Adonis</span></span> is one continued +specimen of it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this beautiful poem there is an endless activity +of thought in all the possible associations of thought +with thought, thought with feeling, or with words, +of feelings with feelings, and of words with words. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Even as the sun, with purple-colour'd face,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn,</div> +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page047">[pg 047]</span><a name="Pg047" id="Pg047" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chase:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Remark the humanizing imagery and circumstances +of the first two lines, and the activity of +thought in the play of words in the fourth line. +The whole stanza presents at once the time, the +appearance of the morning, and the two persons +distinctly characterised, and in six simple lines +puts the reader in possession of the whole argument +of the poem. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Over one arm the lusty courser's rein,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Under the other was the tender boy,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Who blush'd and pouted in a dull disdain,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With leaden appetite, unapt to toy,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">She red and hot, as coals of glowing fire,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">He red for shame, but frosty to desire:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This stanza and the two following afford good instances +of that poetic power, which I mentioned +above, of making every thing present to the imagination—both +the forms, and the passions which +modify those forms, either actually, as in the representations +of love or anger, or other human affections; +or imaginatively, by the different manner in +which inanimate objects, or objects unimpassioned +themselves, are caused to be seen by the mind in +moments of strong excitement, and according to +the kind of the excitement,—whether of jealousy, +or rage, or love, in the only appropriate sense of +the word, or of the lower impulses of our nature, or +finally of the poetic feeling itself. It is, perhaps, +chiefly in the power of producing and reproducing +the latter that the poet stands distinct. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The subject of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus and Adonis</span></span> is unpleasing; +but the poem itself is for that very reason +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page048">[pg 048]</span><a name="Pg048" id="Pg048" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the more illustrative of Shakespeare. There are +men who can write passages of deepest pathos and +even sublimity on circumstances personal to themselves +and stimulative of their own passions; but +they are not, therefore, on this account poets. +Read that magnificent burst of woman's patriotism +and exultation, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Deborah's Song of Victory</span></span>; it is +glorious, but nature is the poet there. It is quite +another matter to become all things and yet remain +the same,—to make the changeful god be felt in the +river, the lion, and the flame;—this it is, that is +the true imagination. Shakespeare writes in this +poem, as if he were of another planet, charming +you to gaze on the movements of Venus and Adonis, +as you would on the twinkling dances of two vernal +butterflies. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Finally, in this poem and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Rape of Lucrece</span></span>, +Shakespeare gave ample proof of his possession of +a most profound, energetic, and philosophical mind, +without which he might have pleased, but could +not have been a great dramatic poet. Chance and +the necessity of his genius combined to lead him to +the drama his proper province: in his conquest of +which we should consider both the difficulties which +opposed him, and the advantages by which he was +assisted. +</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc13" id="toc13"></a> +<a name="pdf14" id="pdf14"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Shakespeare's Judgment equal to his Genius.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Thus then Shakespeare appears, from his <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus +and Adonis</span></span> and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Rape of Lucrece</span></span> alone, apart from +all his great works, to have possessed all the conditions +of the true poet. Let me now proceed to +destroy, as far as may be in my power, the popular +notion that he was a great dramatist by mere instinct, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page049">[pg 049]</span><a name="Pg049" id="Pg049" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +that he grew immortal in his own despite, +and sank below men of second or third rate power, +when he attempted aught beside the drama—even +as bees construct their cells and manufacture their +honey to admirable perfection; but would in vain +attempt to build a nest. Now this mode of reconciling +a compelled sense of inferiority with a feeling +of pride, began in a few pedants, who having read +that Sophocles was the great model of tragedy, and +Aristotle the infallible dictator of its rules, and +finding that the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span> and other +master-pieces were neither in imitation of Sophocles, +nor in obedience to Aristotle,—and not having +(with one or two exceptions) the courage to affirm, +that the delight which their country received from +generation to generation, in defiance of the alterations +of circumstances and habits, was wholly +groundless,—took upon them, as a happy medium +and refuge, to talk of Shakespeare as a sort of +beautiful <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">lusus naturæ</span></span>, a delightful monster,—wild, +indeed, and without taste or judgment, but like the +inspired idiots so much venerated in the East, +uttering, amid the strangest follies, the sublimest +truths. In nine places out of ten in which I find +his awful name mentioned, it is with some epithet +of <span class="tei tei-q">“wild,”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“irregular,”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“pure child of nature,”</span> +&c. If all this be true, we must submit to it; +though to a thinking mind it cannot but be painful +to find any excellence, merely human, thrown +out of all human analogy, and thereby leaving us +neither rules for imitation, nor motives to imitate;—but +if false, it is a dangerous falsehood;—for it +affords a refuge to secret self-conceit,—enables a +vain man at once to escape his reader's indignation +by general swoln panegyrics, and merely by his +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page050">[pg 050]</span><a name="Pg050" id="Pg050" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ipse dixit</span></span> to treat, as contemptible, what he has not +intellect enough to comprehend, or soul to feel, +without assigning any reason, or referring his +opinion to any demonstrative principle;—thus leaving +Shakespeare as a sort of grand Lama, adored +indeed, and his very excrements prized as relics, +but with no authority or real influence. I grieve +that every late voluminous edition of his works +would enable me to substantiate the present charge +with a variety of facts, one-tenth of which would +of themselves exhaust the time allotted to me. +Every critic, who has or has not made a collection +of black letter books—in itself a useful +and respectable amusement,—puts on the seven-league +boots of self-opinion, and strides at once +from an illustrator into a supreme judge, and +blind and deaf, fills his three-ounce phial at the +waters of Niagara; and determines positively the +greatness of the cataract to be neither more nor +less than his three-ounce phial has been able to +receive. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I think this a very serious subject. It is my +earnest desire—my passionate endeavour—to enforce +at various times and by various arguments +and instances the close and reciprocal connection +of just taste with pure morality. Without that +acquaintance with the heart of man, or that docility +and childlike gladness to be made acquainted +with it, which those only can have, who dare look +at their own hearts—and that with a steadiness +which religion only has the power of reconciling +with sincere humility;—without this, and the +modesty produced by it, I am deeply convinced +that no man, however wide his erudition, however +patient his antiquarian researches, can possibly +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page051">[pg 051]</span><a name="Pg051" id="Pg051" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +understand, or be worthy of understanding, the +writings of Shakespeare. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Assuredly that criticism of Shakespeare will alone +be genial which is reverential. The Englishman +who, without reverence—a proud and affectionate +reverence—can utter the name of William Shakespeare, +stands disqualified for the office of critic. +He wants one at least of the very senses, the +language of which he is to employ, and will discourse +at best but as a blind man, while the whole +harmonious creation of light and shade with all +its subtle interchange of deepening and dissolving +colours rises in silence to the silent <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">fiat</span></span> of the uprising +Apollo. However inferior in ability I may +be to some who have followed me, I own I am +proud that I was the first in time who publicly +demonstrated to the full extent of the position, +that the supposed irregularity and extravagances +of Shakespeare were the mere dreams of a pedantry +that arraigned the eagle because it had not the +dimensions of the swan. In all the successive +courses of lectures delivered by me, since my first +attempt at the Royal Institution, it has been, and +it still remains, my object, to prove that in all +points from the most important to the most +minute, the judgment of Shakespeare is commensurate +with his genius,—nay, that his genius +reveals itself in his judgment, as in its most +exalted form. And the more gladly do I recur +to this subject from the clear conviction, that to +judge aright, and with distinct consciousness of +the grounds of our judgment, concerning the +works of Shakespeare, implies the power and the +means of judging rightly of all other works of +intellect, those of abstract science alone excepted. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page052">[pg 052]</span><a name="Pg052" id="Pg052" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is a painful truth, that not only individuals, +but even whole nations, are ofttimes so enslaved +to the habits of their education and immediate +circumstances, as not to judge disinterestedly even +on those subjects, the very pleasure arising from +which consists in its disinterestedness, namely, on +subjects of taste and polite literature. Instead of +deciding concerning their own modes and customs +by any rule of reason, nothing appears rational, +becoming, or beautiful to them, but what coincides +with the peculiarities of their education. In this +narrow circle, individuals may attain to exquisite +discrimination, as the French critics have done in +their own literature; but a true critic can no more +be such without placing himself on some central +point, from which he may command the whole,—that +is, some general rule, which, founded in +reason, or the faculties common to all men, must +therefore apply to each,—than an astronomer can +explain the movements of the solar system without +taking his stand in the sun. And let me remark, +that this will not tend to produce despotism, but, +on the contrary, true tolerance, in the critic. He +will, indeed, require, as the spirit and substance of +a work, something true in human nature itself, +and independent of all circumstances; but in the +mode of applying it, he will estimate genius and +judgment according to the felicity with which the +imperishable soul of intellect shall have adapted +itself to the age, the place, and the existing manners. +The error he will expose, lies in reversing +this, and holding up the mere circumstances as +perpetual to the utter neglect of the power which +can alone animate them. For art cannot exist +without, or apart from nature; and what has man +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page053">[pg 053]</span><a name="Pg053" id="Pg053" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +of his own to give to his fellow man, but his own +thoughts and feelings, and his observations, so far +as they are modified by his own thoughts or +feelings? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Let me, then, once more submit this question to +minds emancipated alike from national, or party, +or sectarian prejudice:—Are the plays of Shakespeare +works of rude uncultivated genius, in +which the splendour of the parts compensates, if +aught can compensate, for the barbarous shapelessness +and irregularity of the whole?—Or is the +form equally admirable with the matter, and the +judgment of the great poet not less deserving our +wonder than his genius?—Or, again, to repeat the +question in other words:—is Shakespeare a great +dramatic poet on account only of those beauties +and excellences which he possesses in common +with the ancients, but with diminished claims to +our love and honour to the full extent of his differences +from them?—Or are these very differences +additional proofs of poetic wisdom, at once results +and symbols of living power as contrasted with +lifeless mechanism—of free and rival originality +as contradistinguished from servile imitation, or, +more accurately, a blind copying of effects, instead +of a true imitation of the essential principles?—Imagine +not that I am about to oppose genius to +rules. No! the comparative value of these rules +is the very cause to be tried. The spirit of poetry, +like all other living powers, must of necessity +circumscribe itself by rules, were it only to unite +power with beauty. It must embody in order to +reveal itself; but a living body is of necessity an +organized one; and what is organization but the +connection of parts in and for a whole, so that +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page054">[pg 054]</span><a name="Pg054" id="Pg054" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +each part is at once end and means?—This is no +discovery of criticism;—it is a necessity of the +human mind; and all nations have felt and obeyed +it, in the invention of metre, and measured +sounds, as the vehicle and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">involucrum</span></span> of poetry—itself +a fellow-growth from the same life,—even +as the bark is to the tree! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +No work of true genius dares want its appropriate +form, neither indeed is there any danger of +this. As it must not, so genius cannot, be lawless; +for it is even this that constitutes it genius—the +power of acting creatively under laws of its own +origination. How then comes it that not only +single <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Zoili</span></span>, but whole nations have combined in +unhesitating condemnation of our great dramatist, +as a sort of African nature, rich in beautiful +monsters—as a wild heath where islands of fertility +look the greener from the surrounding +waste, where the loveliest plants now shine out +among unsightly weeds, and now are choked by +their parasitic growth, so intertwined that we cannot +disentangle the weed without snapping the +flower?—In this statement I have had no reference +to the vulgar abuse of Voltaire, save as far +as his charges are coincident with the decisions of +Shakespeare's own commentators and (so they +would tell you) almost idolatrous admirers. The +true ground of the mistake lies in the confounding +mechanical regularity with organic form. The +form is mechanic, when on any given material we +impress a pre-determined form, not necessarily +arising out of the properties of the material;—as +when to a mass of wet clay we give whatever +shape we wish it to retain when hardened. The +organic form, on the other hand is innate; it +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page055">[pg 055]</span><a name="Pg055" id="Pg055" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +shapes, as it developes, itself from within, and the +fulness of its development is one and the same +with the perfection of its outward form. Such as +the life is, such is the form. Nature, the prime +genial artist, inexhaustible in diverse powers, is +equally inexhaustible in forms;—each exterior is +the physiognomy of the being within,—its true +image reflected and thrown out from the concave +mirror;—and even such is the appropriate excellence +of her chosen poet, of our own Shakespeare,—himself +a nature humanized, a genial +understanding directing self-consciously a power +and an implicit wisdom deeper even than our consciousness. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I greatly dislike beauties and selections in +general; but as proof positive of his unrivalled +excellence, I should like to try Shakespeare by +this criterion. Make out your amplest catalogue +of all the human faculties, as reason or the moral +law, the will, the feeling of the coincidence of the +two (a feeling <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sui generis et demonstratio demonstrationum</span></span>) +called the conscience, the understanding +or prudence, wit, fancy, imagination, judgment,—and +then of the objects on which these are to be +employed, as the beauties, the terrors, and the +seeming caprices of nature, the realities and the +capabilities, that is, the actual and the ideal, of +the human mind, conceived as an individual or as +a social being, as in innocence or in guilt, in a +play-paradise, or in a war-field of temptation;—and +then compare with Shakespeare under each +of these heads all or any of the writers in prose +and verse that have ever lived! Who, that is +competent to judge, doubts the result?—And ask +your own hearts—ask your own common-sense—to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page056">[pg 056]</span><a name="Pg056" id="Pg056" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +conceive the possibility of this man being—I +say not, the drunken savage of that wretched +sciolist, whom Frenchmen, to their shame, have +honoured before their elder and better worthies,—but +the anomalous, the wild, the irregular, genius +of our daily criticism! What! are we to have +miracles in sport?—Or, I speak reverently, does +God choose idiots by whom to convey divine +truths to man? +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page057">[pg 057]</span><a name="Pg057" id="Pg057" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc15" id="toc15"></a> +<a name="pdf16" id="pdf16"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Recapitulation, And Summary +Of the Characteristics of Shakespeare's Dramas.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In lectures, of which amusement forms a large +part of the object, there are some peculiar difficulties. +The architect places his foundation out +of sight, and the musician tunes his instrument +before he makes his appearance; but the lecturer +has to try his chords in the presence of the assembly; +an operation not likely, indeed, to produce +much pleasure, but yet indispensably necessary to +a right understanding of the subject to be developed. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Poetry in essence is as familiar to barbarous as +to civilized nations. The Laplander and the savage +Indian are cheered by it as well as the inhabitants +of London and Paris;—its spirit takes up and +incorporates surrounding materials, as a plant +clothes itself with soil and climate, whilst it exhibits +the working of a vital principle within +independent of all accidental circumstances. And +to judge with fairness of an author's works, we +ought to distinguish what is inward and essential +from what is outward and circumstantial. It is +essential to poetry that it be simple, and appeal to +the elements and primary laws of our nature; +that it be sensuous, and by its imagery elicit truth +at a flash; that it be impassioned, and be able to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page058">[pg 058]</span><a name="Pg058" id="Pg058" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +move our feelings and awaken our affections. In +comparing different poets with each other, we +should inquire which have brought into the fullest +play our imagination and our reason, or have +created the greatest excitement and produced the +completest harmony. If we consider great exquisiteness +of language and sweetness of metre alone, +it is impossible to deny to Pope the character of a +delightful writer; but whether he be a poet, must +depend upon our definition of the word; and, doubtless, +if everything that pleases be poetry, Pope's +satires and epistles must be poetry. This, I must +say, that poetry, as distinguished from other modes +of composition, does not rest in metre, and that it is +not poetry, if it make no appeal to our passions or +our imagination. One character belongs to all +true poets, that they write from a principle within, +not originating in any thing without; and that +the true poet's work in its form, its shapings, and +its modifications, is distinguished from all other +works that assume to belong to the class of poetry, +as a natural from an artificial flower, or as the +mimic garden of a child from an enamelled +meadow. In the former the flowers are broken +from their stems and stuck into the ground; they +are beautiful to the eye and fragrant to the sense, +but their colours soon fade, and their odour is +transient as the smile of the planter;—while the +meadow may be visited again and again with renewed +delight; its beauty is innate in the soil, +and its bloom is of the freshness of nature. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The next ground of critical judgment, and point +of comparison, will be as to how far a given poet +has been influenced by accidental circumstances. +As a living poet must surely write, not for the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page059">[pg 059]</span><a name="Pg059" id="Pg059" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +ages past, but for that in which he lives, and those +which are to follow, it is on the one hand natural +that he should not violate, and on the other necessary +that he should not depend on, the mere +manners and modes of his day. See how little +does Shakespeare leave us to regret that he was +born in his particular age! The great æra in +modern times was what is called the Restoration +of Letters;—the ages preceding it are called the +dark ages; but it would be more wise, perhaps, to +call them the ages in which we were in the dark. +It is usually overlooked that the supposed dark +period was not universal, but partial and successive, +or alternate; that the dark age of England +was not the dark age of Italy, but that one country +was in its light and vigour, whilst another was +in its gloom and bondage. But no sooner had the +Reformation sounded through Europe like the +blast of an archangel's trumpet, than from king +to peasant there arose an enthusiasm for knowledge; +the discovery of a manuscript became the +subject of an embassy; Erasmus read by moonlight, +because he could not afford a torch, and +begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but +for the love of learning. The three great points +of attention were religion, morals, and taste; men +of genius, as well as men of learning, who in this +age need to be so widely distinguished, then alike +became copyists of the ancients; and this, indeed, +was the only way by which the taste of mankind +could be improved, or their understandings informed. +Whilst Dante imagined himself a humble +follower of Virgil, and Ariosto of Homer, they +were both unconscious of that greater power working +within them, which in many points carried +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page060">[pg 060]</span><a name="Pg060" id="Pg060" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +them beyond their supposed originals. All great +discoveries bear the stamp of the age in which +they are made;—hence we perceive the effects of +the purer religion of the moderns visible for the +most part in their lives; and in reading their +works we should not content ourselves with the +mere narratives of events long since passed, but +should learn to apply their maxims and conduct +to ourselves. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Having intimated that times and manners lend +their form and pressure to genius, let me once +more draw a slight parallel between the ancient +and modern stage,—the stages of Greece and of +England. The Greeks were polytheists; their +religion was local; almost the only object of all +their knowledge, art, and taste, was their gods; +and, accordingly, their productions were, if the +expression may be allowed, statuesque, whilst +those of the moderns are picturesque. The Greeks +reared a structure, which, in its parts, and as a +whole, filled the mind with the calm and elevated +impression of perfect beauty, and symmetrical proportion. +The moderns also produced a whole—a +more striking whole; but it was by blending +materials, and fusing the parts together. And as +the Pantheon is to York Minster or Westminster +Abbey, so is Sophocles compared with Shakespeare; +in the one a completeness, a satisfaction, an excellence, +on which the mind rests with complacency; +in the other a multitude of interlaced +materials, great and little, magnificent and mean, +accompanied, indeed, with the sense of a falling +short of perfection, and yet, at the same time, so +promising of our social and individual progression, +that we would not, if we could, exchange it for +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page061">[pg 061]</span><a name="Pg061" id="Pg061" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +that repose of the mind which dwells on the forms +of symmetry in the acquiescent admiration of +grace. This general characteristic of the ancient +and modern drama might be illustrated by a +parallel of the ancient and modern music;—the +one consisting of melody arising from a succession +only of pleasing sounds,—the modern embracing +harmony also, the result of combination, and the +effect of a whole. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have said, and I say it again, that great as +was the genius of Shakespeare, his judgment was +at least equal to it. Of this any one will be convinced, +who attentively considers those points in +which the dramas of Greece and England differ, +from the dissimilitude of circumstances by which +each was modified and influenced. The Greek +stage had its origin in the ceremonies of a sacrifice, +such as of the goat to Bacchus, whom we +most erroneously regard as merely the jolly god of +wine;—for among the ancients he was venerable, +as the symbol of that power which acts without +our consciousness in the vital energies of nature—the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">vinum mundi</span></span>—as Apollo was that of the conscious +agency of our intellectual being. The +heroes of old, under the influences of this Bacchic +enthusiasm, performed more than human actions; +hence tales of the favourite champions soon passed +into dialogue. On the Greek stage the chorus +was always before the audience; the curtain was +never dropped, as we should say; and change of +place being therefore, in general, impossible, the +absurd notion of condemning it merely as improbable +in itself was never entertained by any one. +If we can believe ourselves at Thebes in one act, +we may believe ourselves at Athens in the next. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page062">[pg 062]</span><a name="Pg062" id="Pg062" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +If a story lasts twenty-four hours or twenty-four +years, it is equally improbable. There seems to +be no just boundary but what the feelings prescribe. +But on the Greek stage, where the same +persons were perpetually before the audience, +great judgment was necessary in venturing on +any such change. The poets never, therefore, +attempted to impose on the senses by bringing +places to men, but they did bring men to places, +as in the well-known instance in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Eumenides</span></span>, +where, during an evident retirement of the chorus +from the orchestra, the scene is changed to +Athens, and Orestes is first introduced in the +temple of Minerva, and the chorus of Furies come +in afterwards in pursuit of him. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the Greek drama there were no formal divisions +into scenes and acts; there were no means, +therefore, of allowing for the necessary lapse of +time between one part of the dialogue and another, +and unity of time in a strict sense was, of course, +impossible. To overcome that difficulty of accounting +for time, which is effected on the modern +stage by dropping a curtain, the judgment and +great genius of the ancients supplied music and +measured motion, and with the lyric ode filled up +the vacuity. In the story of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Agamemnon</span></span> of +Æschylus, the capture of Troy is supposed to be +announced by a fire lighted on the Asiatic shore, +and the transmission of the signal by successive +beacons to Mycenæ. The signal is first seen at +the 21st line, and the herald from Troy itself +enters at the 486th, and Agamemnon himself at +the 783rd line. But the practical absurdity of +this was not felt by the audience, who, in imagination +stretched minutes into hours, while they +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page063">[pg 063]</span><a name="Pg063" id="Pg063" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +listened to the lofty narrative odes of the chorus +which almost entirely filled up the interspace. +Another fact deserves attention here, namely, that +regularly on the Greek stage a drama, or acted +story, consisted in reality of three dramas, called +together a trilogy, and performed consecutively in +the course of one day. Now you may conceive a +tragedy of Shakespeare's as a trilogy connected in +one single representation. Divide <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> into three +parts, and each would be a play with the ancients; +or take the three Æschylean dramas of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Agamemnon</span></span>, +and divide them into, or call them, as many +acts, and they together would be one play. The +first act would comprise the usurpation of Ægisthus, +and the murder of Agamemnon; the second, +the revenge of Orestes, and the murder of his +mother; and the third, the penance and absolution +of Orestes;—occupying a period of twenty-two +years. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The stage in Shakespeare's time was a naked +room with a blanket for a curtain; but he made +it a field for monarchs. That law of unity, which +has its foundations, not in the factitious necessity +of custom, but in nature itself, the unity of feeling, +is everywhere and at all times observed by Shakespeare +in his plays. Read <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>;—all +is youth and spring;—youth with its follies, its +virtues, its precipitancies;—spring with its odours, +its flowers, and its transiency; it is one and the +same feeling that commences, goes through, and +ends the play. The old men, the Capulets and +Montagues, are not common old men; they have +an eagerness, a heartiness, a vehemence, the effect +of spring; with Romeo, his change of passion, his +sudden marriage, and his rash death, are all the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page064">[pg 064]</span><a name="Pg064" id="Pg064" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +effects of youth;—whilst in Juliet love has all that +is tender and melancholy in the nightingale, all +that is voluptuous in the rose, with whatever is +sweet in the freshness of spring; but it ends with +a long deep sigh like the last breeze of the Italian +evening. This unity of feeling and character pervades +every drama of Shakespeare. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It seems to me that his plays are distinguished +from those of all other dramatic poets by the +following characteristics:— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +1. Expectation in preference to surprise. It is +like the true reading of the passage—<span class="tei tei-q">“God said, +Let there be light, and there was <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">light</span></em>;”</span>—not, +there <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">was</span></em> light. As the feeling with which we +startle at a shooting star compared with that of +watching the sunrise at the pre-established moment, +such and so low is surprise compared with +expectation. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +2. Signal adherence to the great law of nature, +that all opposites tend to attract and temper each +other. Passion in Shakespeare generally displays +libertinism, but involves morality; and if there +are exceptions to this, they are, independently of +their intrinsic value, all of them indicative of individual +character, and, like the farewell admonitions +of a parent, have an end beyond the parental +relation. Thus the Countess's beautiful precepts +to Bertram, by elevating her character, raise that +of Helena her favourite, and soften down the point +in her which Shakespeare does not mean us not to +see, but to see and to forgive, and at length to +justify. And so it is in Polonius, who is the personified +memory of wisdom no longer actually +possessed. This admirable character is always +misrepresented on the stage. Shakespeare never +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page065">[pg 065]</span><a name="Pg065" id="Pg065" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +intended to exhibit him as a buffoon; for although +it was natural that Hamlet—a young man of fire +and genius, detesting formality, and disliking +Polonius on political grounds, as imagining that +he had assisted his uncle in his usurpation—should +express himself satirically, yet this must not be +taken as exactly the poet's conception of him. In +Polonius a certain induration of character had +arisen from long habits of business; but take his +advice to Laertes, and Ophelia's reverence for his +memory, and we shall see that he was meant to be +represented as a statesman somewhat past his +faculties,—his recollections of life all full of wisdom, +and showing a knowledge of human nature, +whilst what immediately takes place before him, +and escapes from him, is indicative of weakness. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But as in Homer all the deities are in armour, +even Venus; so in Shakespeare all the characters +are strong. Hence real folly and dulness are +made by him the vehicles of wisdom. There is no +difficulty for one being a fool to imitate a fool; +but to be, remain, and speak like a wise man and +a great wit, and yet so as to give a vivid representation +of a veritable fool,—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">hic labor, hoc opus est</span></span>. +A drunken constable is not uncommon, nor hard +to draw; but see and examine what goes to make +up a Dogberry. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +3. Keeping at all times in the high road of life. +Shakespeare has no innocent adulteries, no interesting +incests, no virtuous vice;—he never renders +that amiable which religion and reason alike +teach us to detest, or clothes impurity in the garb +of virtue, like Beaumont and Fletcher, the Kotzebues +of the day. Shakespeare's fathers are +roused by ingratitude, his husbands stung by unfaithfulness; +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page066">[pg 066]</span><a name="Pg066" id="Pg066" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +in him, in short, the affections are +wounded in those points in which all may, nay, +must, feel. Let the morality of Shakespeare be +contrasted with that of the writers of his own, or +the succeeding age, or of those of the present day, +who boast their superiority in this respect. No +one can dispute that the result of such a comparison +is altogether in favour of Shakespeare;—even +the letters of women of high rank in his age were +often coarser than his writings. If he occasionally +disgusts a keen sense of delicacy, he never +injures the mind; he neither excites, nor flatters, +passion, in order to degrade the subject of it; he +does not use the faulty thing for a faulty purpose, +nor carries on warfare against virtue, by causing +wickedness to appear as no wickedness, through +the medium of a morbid sympathy with the unfortunate. +In Shakespeare vice never walks as in +twilight; nothing is purposely out of its place;—he +inverts not the order of nature and propriety,—does +not make every magistrate a drunkard or +glutton, nor every poor man meek, humane, and +temperate; he has no benevolent butchers, nor any +sentimental rat-catchers. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +4. Independence of the dramatic interest on the +plot. The interest in the plot is always in fact on +account of the characters, not <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">vice versa</span></span>, as in +almost all other writers; the plot is a mere canvass +and no more. Hence arises the true justification +of the same stratagem being used in regard to +Benedict and Beatrice,—the vanity in each being +alike. Take away from the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Much Ado about +Nothing</span></span> all that which is not indispensable to the +plot, either as having little to do with it, or, at +best, like Dogberry and his comrades, forced into +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page067">[pg 067]</span><a name="Pg067" id="Pg067" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the service, when any other less ingeniously +absurd watchmen and night-constables would have +answered the mere necessities of the action;—take +away Benedict, Beatrice, Dogberry, and the +reaction of the former on the character of Hero,—and +what will remain? In other writers the main +agent of the plot is always the prominent character; +in Shakespeare it is so, or is not so, as the +character is in itself calculated, or not calculated, +to form the plot. Don John is the main-spring of +the plot of this play; but he is merely shown and +then withdrawn. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +5. Independence of the interest on the story as +the ground-work of the plot. Hence Shakespeare +never took the trouble of inventing stories. It +was enough for him to select from those that had +been already invented or recorded such as had one +or other, or both, of two recommendations, namely, +suitableness to his particular purpose, and their +being parts of popular tradition,—names of which +we had often heard, and of their fortunes, and as +to which all we wanted was, to see the man himself. +So it is just the man himself—the Lear, +the Shylock, the Richard—that Shakespeare +makes us for the first time acquainted with. +Omit the first scene in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, and yet everything +will remain; so the first and second scenes in +the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Merchant of Venice</span></span>. Indeed it is universally +true. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +6. Interfusion of the lyrical—that which in its +very essence is poetical—not only with the dramatic, +as in the plays of Metastasio, where at the end +of the scene comes the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">aria</span></span> +as the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">exit</span></em> speech of +the character,—but also in and through the dramatic. +Songs in Shakespeare are introduced as songs +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page068">[pg 068]</span><a name="Pg068" id="Pg068" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +only, just as songs are in real life, beautifully as +some of them are characteristic of the person who +has sung or called for them, as Desdemona's +<span class="tei tei-q">“Willow,”</span> and Ophelia's wild snatches, and the +sweet carollings in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">As You Like It</span></span>. But the +whole of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Midsummer Night's Dream</span></span> is one +continued specimen of the dramatised lyrical. +And observe how exquisitely the dramatic of Hotspur;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Marry, and I'm glad on't with all my heart;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I'd rather be a kitten and cry—mew.”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +melts away into the lyric of Mortimer;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I am too perfect in,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry IV.</span></span> part i. act iii, sc. 1.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +7. The characters of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dramatis personæ</span></span>, like +those in real life, are to be inferred by the reader;—they +are not told to him. And it is well worth +remarking that Shakespeare's characters, like those +in real life, are very commonly misunderstood, and +almost always understood by different persons in +different ways. The causes are the same in either +case. If you take only what the friends of the +character say, you may be deceived, and still more +so, if that which his enemies say; nay, even the +character himself sees himself through the medium +of his character, and not exactly as he is. Take +all together, not omitting a shrewd hint from the +clown or the fool, and perhaps your impression will +be right; and you may know whether you have in +fact discovered the poet's own idea, by all the +speeches receiving light from it, and attesting its +reality by reflecting it. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page069">[pg 069]</span><a name="Pg069" id="Pg069" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Lastly, in Shakespeare the heterogeneous is +united, as it is in nature. You must not suppose +a pressure or passion always acting on or in the +character!—passion in Shakespeare is that by +which the individual is distinguished from others, +not that which makes a different kind of him. +Shakespeare followed the main march of the +human affections. He entered into no analysis of +the passions or faiths of men, but assured himself +that such and such passions and faiths were +grounded in our common nature, and not in the +mere accidents of ignorance or disease. This is an +important consideration, and constitutes our Shakespeare +the morning star, the guide and the pioneer, +of true philosophy. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page071">[pg 071]</span><a name="Pg071" id="Pg071" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc17" id="toc17"></a> +<a name="pdf18" id="pdf18"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Outline Of An Introductory Lecture Upon Shakespeare.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Of that species of writing termed tragi-comedy, +much has been produced and doomed to the +shelf. Shakespeare's comic are continually reacting +upon his tragic characters. Lear, wandering +amidst the tempest, has all his feelings of distress +increased by the overflowings of the wild wit +of the Fool, as vinegar poured upon wounds exacerbates +their pain. Thus, even his comic humour +tends to the development of tragic passion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The next characteristic of Shakespeare is his +keeping at all times in the high road of life, &c. +Another evidence of his exquisite judgment is, +that he seizes hold of popular tales; <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> and the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Merchant of Venice</span></span> were popular tales, but are so +excellently managed, that both are the representations +of men in all countries and of all times. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +His dramas do not arise absolutely out of some +one extraordinary circumstance, the scenes may +stand independently of any such one connecting +incident, as faithful representations of men and +manners. In his mode of drawing characters +there are no pompous descriptions of a man by +himself; his character is to be drawn, as in real +life, from the whole course of the play, or out of +the mouths of his enemies or friends. This may +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page072">[pg 072]</span><a name="Pg072" id="Pg072" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +be exemplified in Polonius, whose character has +been often misrepresented. Shakespeare never +intended him for a buffoon, &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Another excellence of Shakespeare, in which no +writer equals him, is in the language of nature. +So correct is it, that we can see ourselves in every +page. The style and manner have also that +felicity, that not a sentence can be read, without +its being discovered if it is Shakespearian. In +observation of living characters—of landlords and +postilions—Fielding has great excellence; but in +drawing from his own heart, and depicting that +species of character, which no observation could +teach, he failed in comparison with Richardson, +who perpetually places himself, as it were, in a +day-dream. Shakespeare excels in both. Witness +the accuracy of character in Juliet's name; while +for the great characters of Iago, Othello, Hamlet, +Richard III., to which he could never have seen +anything similar, he seems invariably to have +asked himself—How should I act or speak in such +circumstances? His comic characters are also +peculiar. A drunken constable was not uncommon; +but he makes folly a vehicle for wit, as +in Dogberry: everything is a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sub-stratum</span></span> on which +his genius can erect the mightiest superstructure. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +To distinguish that which is legitimate in +Shakespeare from what does not belong to him, +we must observe his varied images symbolical of +novel truth, thrusting by, and seeming to trip up +each other, from an impetuosity of thought, producing +a flowing metre, and seldom closing with +the line. In <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pericles</span></span>, a play written fifty years +before, but altered by Shakespeare, his additions +may be recognised to half a line, from the metre, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page073">[pg 073]</span><a name="Pg073" id="Pg073" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +which has the same perfection in the flowing continuity +of interchangeable metrical pauses in his +earliest plays, as in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Love's Labour's Lost</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Lastly, contrast his <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">morality</span></em> with the writers of +his own or of the succeeding age, &c. If a man +speak injuriously of our friend, our vindication of +him is naturally warm. Shakespeare has been +accused of profaneness. I for my part have +acquired from perusal of him, a habit of looking +into my own heart, and am confident that Shakespeare +is an author of all others the most calculated +to make his readers better as well as wiser. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-tb">* * * * * </div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare, possessed of wit, humour, fancy, +and imagination, built up an outward world from +the stores within his mind, as the bee finds a hive +from a thousand sweets gathered from a thousand +flowers. He was not only a great poet but a great +philosopher. Richard III., Iago, and Falstaff are +men who reverse the order of things, who place +intellect at the head, whereas it ought to follow, +like Geometry, to prove and to confirm. No man, +either hero or saint, ever acted from an unmixed +motive; for let him do what he will rightly, still +Conscience whispers <span class="tei tei-q">“it is your duty.”</span> Richard, +laughing at conscience and sneering at religion, +felt a confidence in his intellect, which urged him +to commit the most horrid crimes, because he felt +himself, although inferior in form and shape, +superior to those around him; he felt he possessed +a power which they had not. Iago, on the same +principle, conscious of superior intellect, gave +scope to his envy, and hesitated not to ruin a +gallant, open, and generous friend in the moment +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page074">[pg 074]</span><a name="Pg074" id="Pg074" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +of felicity, because he was not promoted as he expected. +Othello was superior in place, but Iago +felt him to be inferior in intellect, and, unrestrained +by conscience, trampled upon him. Falstaff, +not a degraded man of genius, like Burns, +but a man of degraded genius, with the same +consciousness of superiority to his companions, +fastened himself on a young Prince, to prove how +much his influence on an heir-apparent would +exceed that of a statesman. With this view he +hesitated not to adopt the most contemptible of all +characters, that of an open and professed liar: +even his sensuality was subservient to his intellect: +for he appeared to drink sack, that he might have +occasion to show off his wit. One thing, however, +worthy of observation, is the perpetual contrast of +labour in Falstaff to produce wit, with the ease +with which Prince Henry parries his shafts; and +the final contempt which such a character deserves +and receives from the young king, when Falstaff +exhibits the struggle of inward determination with +an outward show of humility. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page075">[pg 075]</span><a name="Pg075" id="Pg075" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc19" id="toc19"></a> +<a name="pdf20" id="pdf20"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Order Of Shakespeare's Plays.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Various attempts have been made to arrange +the plays of Shakespeare, each according to +its priority in time, by proofs derived from external +documents. How unsuccessful these attempts have +been might easily be shewn, not only from the +widely different results arrived at by men, all +deeply versed in the black-letter books, old plays, +pamphlets, manuscript records, and catalogues of +that age, but also from the fallacious and unsatisfactory +nature of the facts and assumptions on +which the evidence rests. In that age, when the +press was chiefly occupied with controversial or +practical divinity,—when the law, the Church, and +the State engrossed all honour and respectability,—when +a degree of disgrace, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">levior quædam infamiæ +macula</span></span>, was attached to the publication of poetry, +and even to have sported with the Muse, as a +private relaxation, was supposed to be—a venial +fault, indeed, yet—something beneath the gravity +of a wise man,—when the professed poets were so +poor, that the very expenses of the press demanded +the liberality of some wealthy individual, so that +two-thirds of Spenser's poetic works, and those +most highly praised by his learned admirers and +friends, remained for many years in manuscript, +and in manuscript perished,—when the amateurs +of the stage were comparatively few, and therefore +for the greater part more or less known to each +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page076">[pg 076]</span><a name="Pg076" id="Pg076" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +other,—when we know that the plays of Shakespeare, +both during and after his life, were the +property of the stage, and published by the +players, doubtless according to their notions of +acceptability with the visitants of the theatre,—in +such an age, and under such circumstances, can an +allusion or reference to any drama or poem in the +publication of a contemporary be received as conclusive +evidence, that such drama or poem had at +that time been published? Or, further, can the +priority of publication itself prove anything in +favour of actually prior composition? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +We are tolerably certain, indeed, that the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus +and Adonis</span></span>, and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Rape of Lucrece</span></span>, were his two +earliest poems, and though not printed until 1593, +in the twenty-ninth year of his age, yet there can +be little doubt that they had remained by him in +manuscript many years. For Mr. Malone has +made it highly probable that he had commenced +as a writer for the stage in 1591, when he was +twenty-seven years old, and Shakespeare himself +assures us that the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus and Adonis</span></span> was the first +heir of his invention. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Baffled, then, in the attempt to derive any satisfaction +from outward documents, we may easily +stand excused if we turn our researches towards +the internal evidences furnished by the writings +themselves, with no other positive <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">data</span></span> than the +known facts that the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus and Adonis</span></span> was printed +in 1593, the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Rape of Lucrece</span></span> in 1594, and that the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span> had appeared in 1595,—and +with no other presumptions than that the poems, +his very first productions, were written many +years earlier—(for who can believe that Shakespeare +could have remained to his twenty-ninth or +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page077">[pg 077]</span><a name="Pg077" id="Pg077" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +thirtieth year without attempting poetic composition +of any kind?),—and that between these and +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span> there had intervened one or two +other dramas, or the chief materials, at least of +them, although they may very possibly have +appeared after the success of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>, +and some other circumstances, had given the poet +an authority with the proprietors, and created a +prepossession in his favour with the theatrical +audiences. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +CLASSIFICATION ATTEMPTED, 1802. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +FIRST EPOCH. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">The London Prodigal.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Cromwell.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry VI., three parts, first edition.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">The old King John.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Edward III.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">The old Taming of the Shrew.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Pericles.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +All these are transition works, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Uebergangswerke</span></span>; +not his, yet of him. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +SECOND EPOCH. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">All's Well that Ends Well;—but afterwards +worked up afresh (<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">umgearbeitet</span></span>), +especially Parolles.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">The Two Gentlemen of Verona; a sketch.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Romeo and Juliet; first draft of it.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +THIRD EPOCH +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +rises into the full, although youthful, Shakespeare; +it was the negative period of his perfection. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page078">[pg 078]</span><a name="Pg078" id="Pg078" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Love's Labour's Lost.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Twelfth Night.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">As You Like It.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Midsummer Night's Dream.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Richard II.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry IV. and V.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry VIII.; <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Gelegenheitsgedicht</span></span>.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Romeo and Juliet, as at present.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Merchant of Venice.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +FOURTH EPOCH. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Much Ado about Nothing.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Merry Wives of Windsor; first edition.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry VI.; <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">rifacimento</span></span>.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +FIFTH EPOCH. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The period of beauty was now past; and that of +δεινότης and grandeur succeeds. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Lear.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Macbeth.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Hamlet.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Timon of Athens; an after vibration of +Hamlet.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Troilus and Cressida; <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Uebergang in die +Ironie</span></span>.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">The Roman Plays.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">King John, as at present.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Merry Wives of Windsor</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Taming of the Shrew <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">umgearbeitet.</span></span></td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Measure for Measure.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Othello.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Tempest.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Winter's Tale.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Cymbeline.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page079">[pg 079]</span><a name="Pg079" id="Pg079" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +CLASSIFICATION ATTEMPTED, 1810. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare's earliest dramas I take to be— +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Love's Labour's Lost.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">All's Well that Ends Well.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Comedy of Errors.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Romeo and Juliet.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the second class I reckon— +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Midsummer Night's Dream.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">As You Like It.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Tempest.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Twelfth Night.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the third, as indicating a greater energy—not +merely of poetry, but of all the world of +thought, yet still with some of the growing pains, +and the awkwardness of growth—I place— +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Troilus and Cressida.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Cymbeline.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Merchant of Venice.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Much Ado about Nothing.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Taming of the Shrew.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the fourth, I place the plays containing the +greatest characters— +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Macbeth.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Lear.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Hamlet.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Othello.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And lastly, the historic dramas, in order to be +able to show my reasons for rejecting some whole +plays, and very many scenes in others. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page080">[pg 080]</span><a name="Pg080" id="Pg080" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +CLASSIFICATION ATTEMPTED, 1819. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I think Shakespeare's earliest dramatic attempt—perhaps +even prior in conception to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Venus +and Adonis</span></span>, and planned before he left Stratford—was +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Love's Labour's Lost</span></span>. Shortly afterwards I +suppose <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pericles</span></span> and certain +scenes in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Jeronymo</span></span> to +have been produced; and in the same epoch, I +place the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Winter's Tale</span></span> +and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cymbeline</span></span>, differing +from the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pericles</span></span> by the +entire <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">rifacimento</span></span> of it, +when Shakespeare's celebrity as poet, and his interest, +no less than his influence, as manager, +enabled him to bring forward the laid-by labours +of his youth. The example of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Titus Andronicus</span></span>, +which, as well as <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Jeronymo</span></span>, was most popular in +Shakespeare's first epoch, had led the young +dramatist to the lawless mixture of dates and +manners. In this same epoch I should place the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Comedy of Errors</span></span>, remarkable as being the only +specimen of poetical farce in our language, that is, +intentionally such; so that all the distinct kinds +of drama, which might be educed <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">a priori</span></span>, have +their representatives in Shakespeare's works. I +say intentionally such; for many of Beaumont +and Fletcher's plays, and the greater part of Ben +Jonson's comedies, are farce plots. I add <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">All's +Well that Ends Well</span></span>, originally intended as the +counterpart of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Love's Labour's Lost</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Taming of the Shrew</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Midsummer Night's Dream</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Much Ado +about Nothing</span></span>, and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +SECOND EPOCH. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Richard II.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">King John.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry VI.,—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">rifacimento</span></span> only.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Richard III.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page081">[pg 081]</span><a name="Pg081" id="Pg081" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +THIRD EPOCH. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry IV.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry V.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Merry Wives of Windsor.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Henry VIII.,—a sort of historical masque, +or show play.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +FOURTH EPOCH +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +gives all the graces and facilities of a genius in +full possession and habitual exercise of power, and +peculiarly of the feminine, the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">lady's</span></em> character. +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Tempest.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">As You Like It</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Merchant of Venice.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Twelfth Night.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And, finally, at its very point of culmination— +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Lear.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Hamlet.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Macbeth.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Othello.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +LAST EPOCH. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +when the energies of intellect in the cycle of +genius were, though in a rich and more potentiated +form, becoming predominant over passion +and creative self-manifestation— +</p> + +<table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Measure for Measure,</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Timon of Athens.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Coriolanus.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Julius Cæsar.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Antony and Cleopatra.</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Troilus and Cressida.</td></tr></tbody></table> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Merciful, wonder-making Heaven! what a man +was this Shakespeare! Myriad-minded, indeed, +he was. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page083">[pg 083]</span><a name="Pg083" id="Pg083" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc21" id="toc21"></a> +<a name="pdf22" id="pdf22"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Notes On The </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Tempest.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is a sort of improbability with which +we are shocked in dramatic representation, +not less than in a narrative of real life. Consequently, +there must be rules respecting it; and as +rules are nothing but means to an end previously +ascertained—(inattention to which simple truth +has been the occasion of all the pedantry of the +French school),—we must first determine what the +immediate end or object of the drama is. And +here, as I have previously remarked, I find two +extremes of critical decision;—the French, which +evidently presupposes that a perfect delusion is to be +aimed at,—an opinion which needs no fresh confutation; +and the exact opposite to it, brought forward +by Dr. Johnson, who supposes the auditors +throughout in the full reflective knowledge of the +contrary. In evincing the impossibility of delusion, +he makes no sufficient allowance for an intermediate +state, which I have before distinguished +by the term illusion, and have attempted to illustrate +its quality and character by reference to our +mental state when dreaming. In both cases we +simply do not judge the imagery to be unreal; +there is a negative reality, and no more. Whatever, +therefore, tends to prevent the mind from +placing itself, or being placed, gradually in that +state in which the images have such negative +reality for the auditor, destroys this illusion, and +is dramatically improbable. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page084">[pg 084]</span><a name="Pg084" id="Pg084" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Now, the production of this effect—a sense of +improbability—will depend on the degree of excitement +in which the mind is supposed to be. +Many things would be intolerable in the first +scene of a play, that would not at all interrupt our +enjoyment in the height of the interest, when the +narrow cockpit may be made to hold +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The vasty field of France, or we may cram</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Within its wooden O, the very casques,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That did affright the air at Agincourt.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Again, on the other hand, many obvious improbabilities +will be endured, as belonging to the +groundwork of the story rather than to the drama +itself, in the first scenes, which would disturb or +disentrance us from all illusion in the acme of our +excitement; as for instance, Lear's division of his +kingdom, and the banishment of Cordelia. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But, although the other excellences of the drama +besides this dramatic probability, as unity of interest, +with distinctness and subordination of the +characters, and appropriateness of style, are all, so +far as they tend to increase the inward excitement, +means towards accomplishing the chief end, that +of producing and supporting this willing illusion,—yet +they do not on that account cease to be ends +themselves; and we must remember that, as such, +they carry their own justification with them, as +long as they do not contravene or interrupt the +total illusion. It is not even always, or of necessity, +an objection to them, that they prevent the +illusion from rising to as great a height as it +might otherwise have attained;—it is enough that +they are simply compatible with as high a degree +of it as is requisite for the purpose. Nay, upon +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page085">[pg 085]</span><a name="Pg085" id="Pg085" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +particular occasions, a palpable improbability may +be hazarded by a great genius for the express purpose +of keeping down the interest of a merely instrumental +scene, which would otherwise make too +great an impression for the harmony of the entire +illusion. Had the panorama been invented in the +time of Pope Leo X., Raffael would still, I doubt +not, have smiled in contempt at the regret, that +the broom twigs and scrubby bushes at the back of +some of his grand pictures were not as probable +trees as those in the exhibition. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Tempest</span></span> is a specimen of the purely romantic +drama, in which the interest is not historical, +or dependent upon fidelity of portraiture, +or the natural connection of events, but is a birth +of the imagination, and rests only upon the coaptation +and union of the elements granted to, or +assumed by, the poet. It is a species of drama +which owes no allegiance to time or space, and in +which, therefore, errors of chronology and geography—no +mortal sins in any species—are venial +faults, and count for nothing. It addresses itself +entirely to the imaginative faculty; and although +the illusion may be assisted by the effect on the +senses of the complicated scenery and decorations +of modern times, yet this sort of assistance is +dangerous. For the principal and only genuine +excitement ought to come from within—from the +moved and sympathetic imagination; whereas, +where so much is addressed to the mere external +senses of seeing and bearing, the spiritual vision +is apt to languish, and the attraction from without +will withdraw the mind from the proper and only +legitimate interest which is intended to spring +from within. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page086">[pg 086]</span><a name="Pg086" id="Pg086" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The romance opens with a busy scene admirably +appropriate to the kind of drama, and giving, as +it were, the key-note to the whole harmony. It +prepares and initiates the excitement required for +the entire piece, and yet does not demand anything +from the spectators, which their previous +habits had not fitted them to understand. It is +the bustle of a tempest, from which the real +horrors are abstracted;—therefore it is poetical, +though not in strictness natural—(the distinction +to which I have so often alluded)—and is purposely +restrained from concentering the interest +on itself, but used merely as an induction or tuning +for what is to follow. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the second scene, Prospero's speeches, till the +entrance of Ariel, contain the finest example I remember +of retrospective narration for the purpose +of exciting immediate interest, and putting the +audience in possession of all the information necessary +for the understanding of the plot. Observe, +too, the perfect probability of the moment chosen +by Prospero (the very Shakespeare himself, as it +were, of the tempest) to open out the truth to his +daughter, his own romantic bearing, and how +completely anything that might have been disagreeable +to us in the magician, is reconciled and +shaded in the humanity and natural feelings of the +father. In the very first speech of Miranda, the +simplicity and tenderness of her character are at +once laid open;—it would have been lost in direct +contact with the agitation of the first scene. The +opinion once prevailed, but happily is now abandoned, +that Fletcher alone wrote for women;—the +truth is, that with very few, and those partial exceptions, +the female characters in the plays of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page087">[pg 087]</span><a name="Pg087" id="Pg087" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Beaumont and Fletcher are, when of the light +kind, not decent; when heroic, complete viragos. +But in Shakespeare all the elements of womanhood +are holy, and there is the sweet yet dignified +feeling of all that <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">continuates</span></em> society, as sense of +ancestry and of sex, with a purity unassailable by +sophistry, because it rests not in the analytic processes, +but in that sane equipoise of the faculties, +during which the feelings are representative of all +past experience,—not of the individual only, but of +all those by whom she has been educated, and +their predecessors, even up to the first mother that +lived. Shakespeare saw that the want of prominence, +which Pope notices for sarcasm, was the +blessed beauty of the woman's character, and knew +that it arose not from any deficiency, but from the +more exquisite harmony of all the parts of the +moral being constituing one living total of head +and heart. He has drawn it, indeed, in all its distinctive +energies of faith, patience, constancy, fortitude,—shown +in all of them as following the +heart, which gives its results by a nice tact and +happy intuition, without the intervention of the +discursive faculty, sees all things in and by the +light of the affections, and errs, if it ever err, in +the exaggerations of love alone. In all the Shakespearian +women there is essentially the same +foundation and principle; the distinct individuality +and variety are merely the result of modification +of circumstances, whether in Miranda the +maiden, in Imogen the wife, or in Katherine the +queen. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But to return. The appearance and characters +of the super or ultra natural servants are finely +contrasted. Ariel has in everything the airy tint +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page088">[pg 088]</span><a name="Pg088" id="Pg088" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +which gives the name; and it is worthy of remark +that Miranda is never directly brought into comparison +with Ariel, lest the natural and human of +the one and the supernatural of the other should +tend to neutralise each other; Caliban, on the +other hand, is all earth, all condensed and gross in +feelings and images; he has the dawnings of +understanding without reason or the moral sense, +and in him, as in some brute animals, this advance +to the intellectual faculties, without the moral sense, +is marked by the appearance of vice. For it is in +the primacy of the moral being only that man is +truly human; in his intellectual powers he is certainly +approached by the brutes, and, man's whole +system duly considered, those powers cannot be +considered other than means to an end—that is, +to morality. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this scene, as it proceeds, is displayed the +impression made by Ferdinand and Miranda on +each other; it is love at first sight;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 7.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“At the first sight</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">They have chang'd eyes;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and it appears to me, that in all cases of real love, +it is at one moment that it takes place. That moment +may have been prepared by previous esteem, +admiration, or even affection,—yet love seems to +require a momentary act of volition, by which a +tacit bond of devotion is imposed,—a bond not to +be thereafter broken without violating what should +be sacred in our nature. How finely is the true +Shakespearian scene contrasted with Dryden's +vulgar alteration of it, in which a mere ludicrous +psychological experiment, as it were, is tried—displaying +nothing but indelicacy without passion. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page089">[pg 089]</span><a name="Pg089" id="Pg089" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Prospero's interruption of the courtship has often +seemed to me to have had no sufficient motive; +still, his alleged reason— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 6.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Lest too light winning</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Make the prize light”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +is enough for the ethereal connections of the romantic +imagination, although it would not be so +for the historical. The whole courting scene, indeed, +in the beginning of the third act, between +the lovers, is a masterpiece; and the first dawn of +disobedience in the mind of Miranda to the command +of her father is very finely drawn, so as to +seem the working of the Scriptural command—<span class="tei tei-q">“Thou +shalt leave father and mother,”</span> &c. Oh! +with what exquisite purity this scene is conceived +and executed! Shakespeare may sometimes be +gross, but I boldly say that he is always moral and +modest. Alas! in this our day, decency of +manners is preserved at the expense of morality +of heart, and delicacies for vice are allowed, whilst +grossness against it is hypocritically, or at least +morbidly, condemned. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this play are admirably sketched the vices +generally accompanying a low degree of civilisation; +and in the first scene of the second act +Shakespeare has, as in many other places, shown +the tendency in bad men to indulge in scorn and +contemptuous expressions as a mode of getting rid +of their own uneasy feelings of inferiority to the +good, and also, by making the good ridiculous, of +rendering the transition of others to wickedness +easy. Shakespeare never puts habitual scorn into +the mouths of other than bad men, as here in the +instances of Antonio and Sebastian. The scene of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page090">[pg 090]</span><a name="Pg090" id="Pg090" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the intended assassination of Alonzo and Gonzalo +is an exact counterpart of the scene between Macbeth +and his lady, only pitched in a lower key +throughout, as designed to be frustrated and concealed, +and exhibiting the same profound management +in the manner of familiarising a mind, not +immediately recipient, to the suggestion of guilt, +by associating the proposed crime with something +ludicrous or out of place,—something not habitually +matter of reverence. By this kind of sophistry +the imagination and fancy are first bribed to +contemplate the suggested act, and at length to +become acquainted with it. Observe how the +effect of this scene is heightened by contrast with +another counterpart of it in low life,—that between +the conspirators Stephano, Caliban, and +Trinculo in the second scene of the third act, in +which there are the same essential characteristics. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this play, and in this scene of it, are also +shown the springs of the vulgar in politics,—of +that kind of politics which is inwoven with human +nature. In his treatment of this subject, wherever +it occurs, Shakespeare is quite peculiar. In other +writers we find the particular opinions of the individual; +in Massinger it is rank republicanism; in +Beaumont and Fletcher even <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">jure divino</span></span> principles +are carried to excess;—but Shakespeare never +promulgates any party tenets. He is always the +philosopher and the moralist, but at the same time +with a profound veneration for all the established +institutions of society, and for those classes which +form the permanent elements of the State,—especially +never introducing a professional character, +as such, otherwise than as respectable. If he must +have any name, he should be styled a philosophical +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page091">[pg 091]</span><a name="Pg091" id="Pg091" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +aristocrat, delighting in those hereditary institutions +which have a tendency to bind one age to +another, and in that distinction of ranks, of which, +although few may be in possession, all enjoy the +advantages. Hence, again, you will observe the +good nature with which he seems always to make +sport with the passions and follies of a mob, as +with an irrational animal. He is never angry +with it, but hugely content with holding up its +absurdities to its face; and sometimes you may +trace a tone of almost affectionate superiority, +something like that in which a father speaks of +the rogueries of a child. See the good-humoured +way in which he describes Stephano passing from +the most licentious freedom to absolute despotism +over Trinculo and Caliban. The truth is, Shakespeare's +characters are all <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">genera</span></span> intensely individualised; +the results of meditation, of which +observation supplied the drapery and the colours +necessary to combine them with each other. He +had virtually surveyed all the great component +powers and impulses of human nature,—had seen +that their different combinations and subordinations +were in fact the individualisers of men, and +showed how their harmony was produced by reciprocal +disproportions of excess or deficiency. +The language in which these truths are expressed +was not drawn from any set fashion, but from the +profoundest depths of his moral being, and is +therefore for all ages. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page093">[pg 093]</span><a name="Pg093" id="Pg093" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc23" id="toc23"></a> +<a name="pdf24" id="pdf24"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Love's Labour's Lost.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The characters in this play are either impersonated +out of Shakespeare's own multiformity +by imaginative self-position, or out of such +as a country town and schoolboy's observation +might supply,—the curate, the schoolmaster, the +Armado (who even in my time was not extinct in +the cheaper inns of North Wales), and so on. The +satire is chiefly on follies of words. Biron and +Rosaline are evidently the pre-existent state of +Benedict and Beatrice, and so, perhaps, is Boyet +of Lafeu, and Costard of the tapster in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Measure +for Measure</span></span>; and the frequency of the rhymes, +the sweetness as well as the smoothness of the +metre, and the number of acute and fancifully +illustrated aphorisms, are all as they ought to be +in a poet's youth. True genius begins by generalising +and condensing; it ends in realising and expanding. +It first collects the seeds. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Yet, if this juvenile drama had been the only +one extant of our Shakespeare, and we possessed +the tradition only of his riper works, or accounts +of them in writers who had not even mentioned +this play,—how many of Shakespeare's characteristic +features might we not still have discovered in +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Love's Labour's Lost</span></span>, though as in a portrait taken +of him in his boyhood. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I can never sufficiently admire the wonderful +activity of thought throughout the whole of the +first scene of the play, rendered natural, as it is, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page094">[pg 094]</span><a name="Pg094" id="Pg094" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +by the choice of the characters, and the whimsical +determination on which the drama is founded. A +whimsical determination certainly;—yet not altogether +so very improbable to those who are conversant +in the history of the middle ages, with +their Courts of Love, and all that lighter drapery +of chivalry, which engaged even mighty kings +with a sort of serio-comic interest, and may well +be supposed to have occupied more completely the +smaller princes, at a time when the noble's or +prince's court contained the only theatre of the +domain or principality. This sort of story, too, +was admirably suited to Shakespeare's times, when +the English court was still the foster-mother of the +state and the muses; and when, in consequence, +the courtiers, and men of rank and fashion, affected +a display of wit, point, and sententious observation, +that would be deemed intolerable at present,—but +in which a hundred years of controversy, involving +every great political, and every dear domestic, +interest, had trained all but the lowest classes to +participate. Add to this the very style of the sermons +of the time, and the eagerness of the Protestants +to distinguish themselves by long and +frequent preaching, and it will be found that, from +the reign of Henry VIII. to the abdication of +James II. no country ever received such a national +education as England. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Hence the comic matter chosen in the first instance +is a ridiculous imitation or apery of this +constant striving after logical precision and subtle +opposition of thoughts, together with a making +the most of every conception or image, by expressing +it under the least expected property belonging +to it, and this, again, rendered specially absurd by +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page095">[pg 095]</span><a name="Pg095" id="Pg095" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +being applied to the most current subjects and +occurrences. The phrases and modes of combination +in argument were caught by the most ignorant +from the custom of the age, and their ridiculous +misapplication of them is most amusingly exhibited +in Costard; whilst examples suited only to the +gravest propositions and impersonations, or apostrophes +to abstract thoughts impersonated, which +are in fact the natural language only of the most +vehement agitations of the mind, are adopted by +the coxcombry of Armado as mere artifices of +ornament. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The same kind of intellectual action is exhibited +in a more serious and elevated strain in many +other parts of this play. Biron's speech at the +end of the Fourth Act is an excellent specimen of +it. It is logic clothed in rhetoric;—but observe +how Shakespeare, in his two-fold being of poet +and philosopher, avails himself of it to convey +profound truths in the most lively images,—the +whole remaining faithful to the character supposed +to utter the lines, and the expressions themselves +constituting a further development of that +character:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Other slow arts entirely keep the brain:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And therefore finding barren practisers,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Lives not alone immured in the brain;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But, with the motion of all elements,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Courses as swift as thought in every power;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And gives to every power a double power,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Above their functions and their offices.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">It adds a precious seeing to the eye,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Love's feeling is more soft and sensible,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Than are the tender horns of cockled snails;</div> +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page096">[pg 096]</span><a name="Pg096" id="Pg096" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For valour, is not love a Hercules,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Never durst poet touch a pen to write,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Until his ink were tempered with love's sighs;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Oh, then his lines would ravish savage ears,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And plant in tyrants mild humility.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">They are the books, the arts, the academes,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That show, contain, and nourish all the world;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Else, none at all in aught proves excellent;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Then fools you were these women to forswear;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or women's sake, by whom we men are men;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">It is religion to be thus forsworn:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For charity itself fulfils the law:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And who can sever love from charity?”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is quite a study;—sometimes you see this +youthful god of poetry connecting disparate +thoughts purely by means of resemblances in the +words expressing them,—a thing in character in +lighter comedy, especially of that kind in which +Shakespeare delights, namely, the purposed display +of wit, though sometimes too, disfiguring his +graver scenes;—but more often you may see him +doubling the natural connection or order of logical +consequence in the thoughts by the introduction +of an artificial and sought for resemblance in the +words, as, for instance, in the third line of the +play,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And then grace us in the disgrace of death;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +this being a figure often having its force and propriety, +as justified by the law of passion, which, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page097">[pg 097]</span><a name="Pg097" id="Pg097" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +inducing in the mind an unusual activity, seeks +for means to waste its superfluity,—when in the +highest degree—in lyric repetitions and sublime +tautology—<span class="tei tei-q">“At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay +down; at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he +bowed, there he fell down dead,”</span>—and, in lower +degrees, in making the words themselves the subjects +and materials of that surplus action, and for +the same cause that agitates our limbs, and forces +our very gestures into a tempest in states of high +excitement. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The mere style of narration in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Love's Labour's +Lost</span></span>, like that of Ægeon in the first scene of the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Comedy of Errors</span></span>, and of the Captain in the +second scene of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>, seems imitated with its +defects and its beauties from Sir Philip Sidney; +whose <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Arcadia</span></span>, though not then published, was +already well known in manuscript copies, and +could hardly have escaped the notice and admiration +of Shakespeare as the friend and client of the +Earl of Southampton. The chief defect consists +in the parentheses and parenthetic thoughts and +descriptions, suited neither to the passion of the +speaker, nor the purpose of the person to whom +the information is to be given, but manifestly betraying +the author himself,—not by way of continuous +undersong, but—palpably, and so as to +show themselves addressed to the general reader. +However, it is not unimportant to notice how +strong a presumption the diction and allusions of +this play afford, that, though Shakespeare's acquirements +in the dead languages might not be +such as we suppose in a learned education, his +habits had, nevertheless, been scholastic, and those +of a student. For a young author's first work +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page098">[pg 098]</span><a name="Pg098" id="Pg098" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +almost always bespeaks his recent pursuits, and +his first observations of life are either drawn from +the immediate employments of his youth, and from +the characters and images most deeply impressed +on his mind in the situations in which those employments +had placed him;—or else they are fixed +on such objects and occurrences in the world, as +are easily connected with, and seem to bear upon, +his studies and the hitherto exclusive subjects of +his meditation. Just as Ben Jonson, who applied +himself to the drama after having served in +Flanders, fills his earliest plays with true or pretended +soldiers, the wrongs and neglects of the +former, and the absurd boasts and knavery of +their counterfeits. So Lessing's first comedies are +placed in the universities, and consist of events +and characters conceivable in an academic life. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I will only further remark the sweet and tempered +gravity, with which Shakespeare in the end +draws the only fitting moral which such a drama +afforded. Here Rosaline rises up to the full +height of Beatrice:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ros.</span></span> Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Before I saw you: and the world's large tongue</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Full of comparisons, and wounding flouts,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which you on all estates will execute</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That lie within the mercy of your wit:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And therewithal, to win me, if you please</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">(Without the which I am not to be won),</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Visit the speechless sick, and still converse</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With groaning wretches; and your talk shall be,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With all the fierce endeavour of your wit,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To enforce the pained impotent to smile.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Biron.</span></span> To move wild laughter in the throat of death?</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">It cannot be; it is impossible;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ros.</span></span> Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit,</div> +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page099">[pg 099]</span><a name="Pg099" id="Pg099" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Whose influence is begot of that loose grace,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A jest's prosperity lies in the ear</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of him that hears it, never in the tongue</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of him that makes it: then, if sickly ears,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear groans,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Will hear your idle scorns, continue then,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And I will have you, and that fault withal:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But, if they will not, throw away that spirit,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And I shall find you empty of that fault,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Right joyful of your reformation.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 2. In Biron's speech to the Princess: +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And, therefore, like the eye,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Full of <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">straying</span></em> shapes, of habits, and of forms”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +either read <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">stray</span></em>, which I prefer; or throw <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">full</span></em> +back to the preceding lines,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 8.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Like the eye, full</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Of straying shapes,”</span> &c,</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the same scene:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Biron.</span></span> And what to me, my love? and what to me?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ros.</span></span> You must be purged too, your sins are rank;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">You are attaint with fault and perjury:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Therefore, if you my favour mean to get,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But seek the weary beds of people sick.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There can be no doubt, indeed, about the propriety +of expunging this speech of Rosaline's; it soils +the very page that retains it. But I do not agree +with Warburton and others in striking out the +preceding line also. It is quite in Biron's character; +and Rosaline, not answering it immediately, +Dumain takes up the question for him, +and, after he and Longaville are answered, Biron, +with evident propriety, says:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Studies</span></em> my mistress?”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101">[pg 101]</span><a name="Pg101" id="Pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc25" id="toc25"></a> +<a name="pdf26" id="pdf26"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Midsummer Night's Dream.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Her.</span></span> O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low—</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lys.</span></span> Or else misgrafted in respect of years;</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Her.</span></span> O spite! too old to be engaged to young—</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lys.</span></span> Or else it stood upon the choice of friends;</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Her.</span></span> O hell! to chuse love by another's eye!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is no authority for any alteration;—but +I never can help feeling how great an improvement +it would be, if the two former of +Hermia's exclamations were omitted;—the third +and only appropriate one would then become a +beauty, and most natural. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Helena's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I am convinced that Shakespeare availed himself +of the title of this play in his own mind, and +worked upon it as a dream throughout, but especially, +and perhaps unpleasingly, in this broad +determination of ungrateful treachery in Helena, +so undisguisedly avowed to herself, and this, too, +after the witty cool philosophising that precedes. +The act itself is natural, and the resolve so to act +is, I fear, likewise too true a picture of the lax +hold which principles have on a woman's heart, +when opposed to, or even separated from, passion +and inclination. For women are less hypocrites +to their own minds than men are, because in +general they feel less proportionate abhorrence of +moral evil in and for itself, and more of its outward +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102">[pg 102]</span><a name="Pg102" id="Pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +consequences, as detection and loss of character, +than men,—their natures being almost +wholly extroitive. Still, however just in itself, +the representation of this is not poetical; we +shrink from it, and cannot harmonise it with the +ideal. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Theobald's edition— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Through</span></em> bush, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">through</span></em> briar—</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Through</span></em> flood, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">through fire</span></em>—”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What a noble pair of ears this worthy Theobald +must have had! The eight amphimacers or +cretics,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Ovĕr hīll, ōvĕr dāle,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thōrŏ' būsh, thōrŏ' brīar,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Ovĕr pārk, ōvĕr pāle,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Thrōrŏ' flōōd, thōrŏ' fīre”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +have a delightful effect on the ear in their sweet +transition to the trochaic,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I dŏ wāndĕr ēv'ry whērĕ</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Swīftĕr thān thĕ mōōnĕs sphērĕ,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The last words, as sustaining the rhyme, must be +considered, as in fact they are, trochees in time. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It may be worth while to give some correct +examples in English of the principle metrical +feet:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Pyrrhic or Dibrach, u u = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">bŏdy</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">spĭrĭt</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Tribrach, u u u = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">nŏbŏdy</span></span>, hastily pronounced.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Iambus, u - = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">dĕlīght</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Trochee, - u = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">līghtlȳ</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Spondee, - - = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Gōd spāke</span></span>.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The paucity of spondees in single words in English, +and indeed in the modern languages in general, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page103">[pg 103]</span><a name="Pg103" id="Pg103" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +makes perhaps the greatest distinction, metrically +considered, between them and the Greek and +Latin. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Dactyl, - u u = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">mērrĭlȳ</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Anapæst, u u - = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">ă prŏpōs</span></span>, or the first three +syllables of <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">cĕrĕmōny</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Amphibrachys, u - u = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">dĕlīghtfŭl</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Amphimacer, - u - = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">ōvĕr hīll</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Antibacchius, u - = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">thĕ Lōrd Gōd</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Bacchius, - - u = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Hēlvēllȳn</span></span>.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Molossus, - - - = <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Jōhn Jāmes Jōnes</span></span>.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +These simple feet may suffice for understanding +the metres of Shakespeare, for the greater part at +least;—but Milton cannot be made harmoniously +intelligible without the composite feet, the Ionics, +Pæons, and Epitrites. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Titania's speech (Theobald, adopting +Warburton's reading):— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Which she, with pretty and with swimming gate</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Follying</span></em> (her womb then rich with my young squire)</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Would imitate,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Oh! oh! Heaven have mercy on poor Shakespeare, +and also on Mr. Warburton's mind's eye! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 1. Theseus' speech (Theobald):— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And what poor [<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">willing</span></em>] duty cannot do,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Noble respect takes it in might, not merit.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +To my ears it would read far more Shakespearian +thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And what poor duty cannot do, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">yet would</span></em>,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Noble respect,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Puck.</span></span> Now the hungry lion roars,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em">And the wolf behowls the moon;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Whilst the heavy ploughman snores</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">All with weary task foredone,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104">[pg 104]</span><a name="Pg104" id="Pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Very Anacreon in perfectness, proportion, grace, +and spontaneity! So far it is Greek;—but then +add, O! what wealth, what wild ranging, and yet +what compression and condensation of, English +fancy! In truth, there is nothing in Anacreon +more perfect than these thirty lines, or half so +rich and imaginative. They form a speckless +diamond. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page105">[pg 105]</span><a name="Pg105" id="Pg105" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc27" id="toc27"></a> +<a name="pdf28" id="pdf28"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Comedy Of Errors.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The myriad-minded man, our, and all men's +Shakespeare, has in this piece presented us +with a legitimate farce in exactest consonance with +the philosophical principles and character of farce, +as distinguished from comedy and from entertainments. +A proper farce is mainly distinguished +from comedy by the licence allowed, and even required, +in the fable, in order to produce strange +and laughable situations. The story need not be +probable, it is enough that it is possible. A +comedy would scarcely allow even the two Antipholuses; +because, although there have been instances +of almost indistinguishable likeness in two +persons, yet these are mere individual accidents, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">casus ludentis naturæ</span></span>, +and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">verum</span></span> will not excuse +the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">inverisimile</span></span>. But farce dares add the two +Dromios, and is justified in so doing by the laws +of its end and constitution. In a word, farces +commence in a postulate, which must be granted. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107">[pg 107]</span><a name="Pg107" id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc29" id="toc29"></a> +<a name="pdf30" id="pdf30"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">As You Like It.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Oli.</span></span> What, boy!</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Orla.</span></span> Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Oli.</span></span> Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is a beauty here. The word <span class="tei tei-q">“boy”</span> +naturally provokes and awakens in Orlando +the sense of his manly powers; and with the +retort of <span class="tei tei-q">“elder brother,”</span> he grasps him with +firm hands, and makes him feel he is no boy. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Oli.</span></span> Farewell, good Charles. Now will I stir this gamester: +I hope, I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, +hates nothing more than him. Yet he's gentle; never school'd, and +yet learn'd; full of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly beloved! +and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and especially of my +own people, who best know him, that I am altogether misprised: +but it shall not be so long; this wrestler shall clear all.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This has always appeared to me one of the most +un-Shakespearian speeches in all the genuine +works of our poet; yet I should be nothing surprised, +and greatly pleased, to find it hereafter a +fresh beauty, as has so often happened to me with +other supposed defects of great men.—1810. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is too venturous to charge a passage in +Shakespeare with want of truth to nature; and +yet at first sight this speech of Oliver's expresses +truths, which it seems almost impossible that any +mind should so distinctly, so livelily, and so +voluntarily, have presented to itself, in connection +with feelings and intentions so malignant, and so +contrary to those which the qualities expressed +would naturally have called forth. But I dare +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108">[pg 108]</span><a name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +not say that this seeming unnaturalness is not in +the nature of an abused wilfulness, when united +with a strong intellect. In such characters there +is sometimes a gloomy self-gratification in making +the absoluteness of the will (<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sit pro ratione +voluntas!</span></span>) evident to themselves by setting the +reason and the conscience in full array against it.—1818. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Celia.</span></span> If your saw yourself with <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">your</span></em> +eyes, or knew yourself +with <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">your</span></em> judgment, the fear of your adventure would counsel you +to a more equal enterprise.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Surely it should be <span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">our</span></em> eyes”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">our</span></em> +judgment.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc 3.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cel.</span></span> But is all this for your father?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ros.</span></span> No; some of it is for +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">my child's father</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald restores this as the reading of the +older editions. It may be so: but who can doubt +that it is a mistake for <span class="tei tei-q">“my father's child,”</span> meaning +herself? According to Theobald's note, a +most indelicate anticipation is put into the mouth +of Rosalind without reason;—and besides, what a +strange thought, and how out of place and unintelligible! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Take thou no scorn</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To wear the horn, the lusty horn;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">It was a crest ere thou wast born.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I question whether there exists a parallel instance +of a phrase, that like this of <span class="tei tei-q">“horns”</span> is +universal in all languages, and yet for which no +one has discovered even a plausible origin. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109">[pg 109]</span><a name="Pg109" id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc31" id="toc31"></a> +<a name="pdf32" id="pdf32"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Twelfth Night.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Duke's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 6.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“So full of shapes is fancy,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That it alone is high fantastical.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's alteration of <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">is</span></em> into <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">in</span></em> is +needless. <span class="tei tei-q">“Fancy”</span> may very well be interpreted +<span class="tei tei-q">“exclusive affection,”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“passionate +preference.”</span> Thus, bird-fanciers; gentlemen of +the fancy, that is, amateurs of boxing, &c. The +play of assimilation,—the meaning one sense +chiefly, and yet keeping both senses in view, is +perfectly Shakespearian. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 3. Sir Andrew's speech:— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +An explanatory note on <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pigrogromitus</span></span> would +have been more acceptable than Theobald's grand +discovery that <span class="tei tei-q">“lemon”</span> ought to be <span class="tei tei-q">“leman.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Sir Toby's speech (Warburton's note on +the Peripatetic philosophy):— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch, that will draw three</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“souls out of one weaver?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O genuine, and inimitable (at least I hope so) +Warburton! This note of thine, if but one in +five millions, would be half a one too much. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Duke.</span></span> My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Hath it not, boy?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Vio.</span></span> A little, by your favour.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Duke.</span></span> What kind of woman is't?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And yet Viola was to have been presented to +Orsino as a eunuch!—Act i. sc. 2. Viola's speech. +Either she forgot this, or else she had altered her +plan. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page110">[pg 110]</span><a name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Vio.</span></span> A blank, my lord: she never told her love!—</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But let concealment,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +After the first line (of which the last five words +should be spoken with, and drop down in, a deep +sigh), the actress ought to make a pause; and then +start afresh, from the activity of thought, born of +suppressed feelings, and which thought had accumulated +during the brief interval, as vital heat +under the skin during a dip in cold water. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Fabian.</span></span> Though our silence be drawn from us by <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">cars</span></em>, yet</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">peace.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Perhaps, <span class="tei tei-q">“cables.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Clown.</span></span> A sentence is but a <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">cheveril</span></span> glove to a good wit.”</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">(Theobald's note.)</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald's etymology of <span class="tei tei-q">“cheveril”</span> is, of course, +quite right;—but he is mistaken in supposing that +there were no such things as gloves of chicken-skin. +They were at one time a main article in +chirocosmetics. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 1. Clown's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“So that, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">conclusions to be as kisses</span></em>, if your four negatives make</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">your two affirmatives, why, then, the worse for my friends, and the</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">better for my foes.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +(Warburton reads <span class="tei tei-q">“conclusion to be asked, is.”</span>) +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Surely Warburton could never have wooed by +kisses and won, or he would not have flounder-flatted +so just and humorous, nor less pleasing than +humorous, an image into so profound a nihility. +In the name of love and wonder, do not four kisses +make a double affirmative? The humour lies in +the whispered <span class="tei tei-q">“No!”</span> and the inviting <span class="tei tei-q">“Don't!”</span> +with which the maiden's kisses are accompanied, +and thence compared to negatives, which by repetition +constitute an affirmative. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111">[pg 111]</span><a name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc33" id="toc33"></a> +<a name="pdf34" id="pdf34"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">All's Well That Ends Well.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Count.</span></span> If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">it soon mortal.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Bert.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Madam, I desire your holy wishes.</span></span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Laf.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">How understand we that?</span></span>”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Bertram and Lafeu, I imagine, both speak +together,—Lafeu referring to the Countess's +rather obscure remark. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. (Warburton's note.) +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">King.</span></span> ... let <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">higher</span></em> Italy</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">(Those <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">'bated</span></em>, that inherit but the fall</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of the last monarchy) see, that you come</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Not to woo honour, but to wed it.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It would be, I own, an audacious and unjustifiable +change of the text; but yet, as a mere conjecture, +I venture to suggest <span class="tei tei-q">“bastards,”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“'bated.”</span> +As it stands, in spite of Warburton's note, I can +make little or nothing of it. Why should the king +except the then most illustrious states, which, as +being republics, were the more truly inheritors of +the Roman grandeur?—With my conjecture, the +sense would be;—<span class="tei tei-q">“let higher, or the more northern +part of Italy—(unless <span class="tei tei-q">‘higher’</span> be a corruption for +<span class="tei tei-q">‘hir'd,’</span>—the metre seeming to demand a monosyllable) +(those bastards that inherit the infamy only +of their fathers) see,”</span> &c. The following <span class="tei tei-q">“woo”</span> +and <span class="tei tei-q">“wed”</span> are so far confirmative as they indicate +Shakespeare's manner of connection by unmarked +influences of association from some preceding metaphor. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112">[pg 112]</span><a name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +This it is which makes his style so peculiarly +vital and organic. Likewise <span class="tei tei-q">“those girls of +Italy”</span> strengthen the guess. The absurdity of +Warburton's gloss, which represents the king calling +Italy superior, and then excepting the only +part the lords were going to visit, must strike +every one. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Laf.</span></span> They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">persons to make modern and familiar, things supernatural</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">and <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">causeless</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare, inspired, as it might seem, with all +knowledge, here uses the word <span class="tei tei-q">“causeless”</span> in its +strict philosophical sense;—cause being truly predicable +only of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">phenomena</span></span>, that is, things natural, +and not of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">noumena</span></span>, or things supernatural. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Dia.</span></span> The Count Rousillon:—know you such a one?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Hel.</span></span> But by the ear that hears most nobly of him;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">His face I know not.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shall we say here, that Shakespeare has unnecessarily +made his loveliest character utter a lie?—Or +shall we dare think that, where to deceive was +necessary, he thought a pretended verbal verity a +double crime, equally with the other a lie to the +hearer, and at the same time an attempt to lie to +one's own conscience? +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page113">[pg 113]</span><a name="Pg113" id="Pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc35" id="toc35"></a> +<a name="pdf36" id="pdf36"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Merry Wives Of Windsor.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Shal.</span></span> The luce is the fresh fish, the salt fish is +an old coat.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I cannot understand this. Perhaps there is +a corruption both of words and speakers. +Shallow no sooner corrects one mistake of Sir +Hugh's, namely, <span class="tei tei-q">“louse”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“luce,”</span> a pike, but +the honest Welchman falls into another, namely, +<span class="tei tei-q">“cod”</span> (<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">baccalà</span></span>). +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cambrice</span></span>—<span class="tei tei-q">“cot”</span> for coat. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Shal.</span></span> The luce is the fresh fish—</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Evans.</span></span> The salt fish is an old cot.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Luce is a fresh fish, and not a louse;”</span> says Shallow. +<span class="tei tei-q">“Aye, aye,”</span> quoth Sir Hugh; <span class="tei tei-q">“the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">fresh</span></em> +fish is the luce; it is an old cod that is the salt +fish.”</span> At all events, as the text stands, there is +no sense at all in the words. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Fal.</span></span> Now, the report goes, +she has all the rule of her husband's</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">purse; He hath a legion of angels.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Pist.</span></span> As many devils +entertain; and <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">To her, boy</span></em>, say I.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Perhaps it is— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“As many devils enter (or enter'd) swine; +and <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">to her, boy</span></em>,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">say I:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +a somewhat profane, but not un-Shakespearian, allusion +to the <span class="tei tei-q">“legion”</span> in St. Luke's <span class="tei tei-q">“gospel.”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115">[pg 115]</span><a name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc37" id="toc37"></a> +<a name="pdf38" id="pdf38"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Measure For Measure.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This play, which is Shakespeare's throughout, +is to me the most painful—say rather, the only +painful—part of his genuine works. The comic +and tragic parts equally border on the μισητὸν,—the +one being disgusting, the other horrible; and +the pardon and marriage of Angelo not merely +baffles the strong indignant claim of justice—(for +cruelty, with lust and damnable baseness, cannot +be forgiven, because we cannot conceive them as +being morally repented of); but it is likewise degrading +to the character of woman. Beaumont +and Fletcher, who can follow Shakespeare in his +errors only, have presented a still worse, because +more loathsome and contradictory, instance of the +same kind in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Night-Walker</span></span>, in the marriage +of Alathe to Algripe. Of the counter-balancing +beauties of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Measure for Measure</span></span>, I need say nothing; +for I have already remarked that the play +is Shakespeare's throughout. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Ay, but to die, and go we know not where,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">This natural fear of Claudio, from the antipathy we have to +death, seems very little varied from that infamous wish of Mæcenas, +recorded in the 101st epistle of Seneca:—</span></span> +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Debilem facito manu,</span></span></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Debilem pede, coxa</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> +&c.—Warburton's note.</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I cannot but think this rather a heroic resolve, +than an infamous wish. It appears to me to be +the grandest symptom of an immortal spirit, when +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116">[pg 116]</span><a name="Pg116" id="Pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +even that bedimmed and overwhelmed spirit recked +not of its own immortality, still to seek to be,—to +be a mind, a will. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +As fame is to reputation, so heaven is to an +estate, or immediate advantage. The difference +is, that the self-love of the former cannot exist +but by a complete suppression and habitual supplantation +of immediate selfishness. In one point +of view, the miser is more estimable than the +spendthrift;—only that the miser's present feelings +are as much of the present as the spendthrift's. +But <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">cæteris paribus</span></span>, that is, upon the +supposition that whatever is good or lovely in the +one coexists equally in the other, then, doubtless, +the master of the present is less a selfish being, +an animal, than he who lives for the moment with +no inheritance in the future. Whatever can degrade +man, is supposed in the latter case; whatever +can elevate him, in the former. And as to +self;—strange and generous self! that can only +be such a self by a complete divestment of all that +men call self,—of all that can make it either +practically to others, or consciously to the individual +himself, different from the human race in +its ideal. Such self is but a perpetual religion, +an inalienable acknowledgment of God, the sole +basis and ground of being. In this sense, how +can I love God, and not love myself, as far as it +is of God? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Pattern in himself to know,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Grace to stand, and virtue go.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Worse metre, indeed, but better English would +be,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Grace to stand, virtue to go.”</span></div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117">[pg 117]</span><a name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc39" id="toc39"></a> +<a name="pdf40" id="pdf40"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Cymbeline.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“You do not meet a man, but frowns: our bloods</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers'</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Still seem, as does the king's.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There can be little doubt of Mr. Tyrwhitt's +emendations of <span class="tei tei-q">“courtiers”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“king,”</span> as +to the sense;—only it is not impossible that +Shakespeare's dramatic language may allow of the +word <span class="tei tei-q">“brows”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“faces”</span> being understood after +the word <span class="tei tei-q">“courtiers',”</span> which might then remain +in the genitive case plural. But the nominative +plural makes excellent sense, and is sufficiently +elegant, and sounds to my ear Shakespearian. +What, however, is meant by <span class="tei tei-q">“our bloods no more +obey the heavens?”</span>—Dr. Johnson's assertion +that <span class="tei tei-q">“bloods”</span> signify <span class="tei tei-q">“countenances,”</span> is, I think, +mistaken both in the thought conveyed—(for it +was never a popular belief that the stars governed +men's countenances)—and in the usage, which +requires an antithesis of the blood,—or the temperament +of the four humours, choler, melancholy, +phlegm, and the red globules, or the sanguine +portion, which was supposed not to be in our own +power, but to be dependent on the influences of +the heavenly bodies,—and the countenances which +are in our power really, though from flattery we +bring them into a no less apparent dependence on +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118">[pg 118]</span><a name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the sovereign, than the former are in actual +dependence on the constellations. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have sometimes thought that the word <span class="tei tei-q">“courtiers”</span> +was a misprint for <span class="tei tei-q">“countenances,”</span> arising +from an anticipation, by foreglance of the compositor's +eye, of the word <span class="tei tei-q">“courtier”</span> a few lines +below. The written <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">r</span></span> is easily and often confounded +with, the written <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">n</span></span>. The compositor read +the first syllable <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">court</span></span>, and—his eye at the same +time catching the word <span class="tei tei-q">“courtier”</span> lower down—he +completed the word without reconsulting the +copy. It is not unlikely that Shakespeare intended +first to express, generally, the same +thought, which a little afterwards he repeats with +a particular application to the persons meant;—a +common usage of the pronominal <span class="tei tei-q">“our,”</span> where +the speaker does not really mean to include himself; +and the word <span class="tei tei-q">“you”</span> is an additional confirmation +of the <span class="tei tei-q">“our,”</span> being used in this place for +<span class="tei tei-q">“men”</span> generally and indefinitely,—just as <span class="tei tei-q">“you +do not meet”</span> is the same as <span class="tei tei-q">“one does not meet.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1 Imogen's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“My dearest husband,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I something fear my father's wrath; but nothing</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">(Always reserved my holy duty) what</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">His rage can do on me;”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Place the emphasis on <span class="tei tei-q">“me”</span>; for <span class="tei tei-q">“rage”</span> is a +mere repetition of <span class="tei tei-q">“wrath.”</span> +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cym.</span></span> O disloyal thing;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That should'st repair my youth; thou heapest</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A year's age on me!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How is it that the commentators take no notice +of the un-Shakespearian defect in the metre of the +second line, and what in Shakespeare is the same, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119">[pg 119]</span><a name="Pg119" id="Pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +in the harmony with the sense and feeling? Some +word or words must have slipped out after +<span class="tei tei-q">“youth,”</span>—possibly <span class="tei tei-q">“and see”</span>:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“That should'st repair my youth!—and see, thou heap'st,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Pisanio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For so long</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As he could make me with <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">this</span></em> eye or ear</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Distinguish him from others,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But <span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">this</span></em> eye,”</span> in spite of the supposition of its +being used δεικτικῶς, is very awkward. I should +think that either <span class="tei tei-q">“or”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“the”</span> was Shakespeare's +word;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“As he could make me or with eye or ear.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6. Iachimo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 8.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Hath nature given them eyes</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To see this vaulted arch, and the rich crop</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Upon the number'd beach.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I would suggest <span class="tei tei-q">“cope”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“crop.”</span> As to +<span class="tei tei-q">“twinn'd stones”</span>—may it not be a bold <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">catachresis</span></span> +for muscles, cockles, and other empty shells with +hinges, which are truly twinned? I would take +Dr. Farmer's <span class="tei tei-q">“umber'd,”</span> which I had proposed +before I ever heard of its having been already +offered by him: but I do not adopt his interpretation +of the word, which I think is not derived +from <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">umbra</span></span>, a shade, +but from <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">umber</span></span>, a dingy +yellow-brown soil, which most commonly forms +the mass of the sludge on the sea-shore, and on +the banks of tide-rivers at low water. One other +possible interpretation of this sentence has occurred +to me, just barely worth mentioning;—that +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120">[pg 120]</span><a name="Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the <span class="tei tei-q">“twinn'd stones”</span> are the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">augrim</span></span> stones +upon the number'd beech,—that is, the astronomical +tables of beech-wood. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Sooth.</span></span> When, as a lion's whelp,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is not easy to conjecture why Shakespeare +should have introduced this ludicrous scroll, which +answers no one purpose, either propulsive, or explicatory, +unless as a joke on etymology. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page121">[pg 121]</span><a name="Pg121" id="Pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc41" id="toc41"></a> +<a name="pdf42" id="pdf42"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Titus Andronicus.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Theobald's note:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I never heard it so much as intimated, that he (Shakespeare) +had turned his genius to stage-writing, before he associated with +the players, and became one of their body.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +That Shakespeare never <span class="tei tei-q">“turned his genius to +stage-writing,”</span> as Theobald most <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Theobaldice</span></span> +phrases it, before he became an actor, is an assertion +of about as much authority as the precious +story that he left Stratford for deer-stealing, and +that he lived by holding gentlemen's horses at the +doors of the theatre, and other trash of that arch-gossip, +old Aubrey. The metre is an argument +against <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Titus Andronicus</span></span> being Shakespeare's, +worth a score such chronological surmises. Yet +I incline to think that both in this play and in +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Jeronymo</span></span>, Shakespeare wrote some passages, and +that they are the earliest of his compositions. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 2. I think it not improbable that +the lines from— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I am not mad; I know thee well enough;</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +to +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">So thou destroy Rapine, and Murder there”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +were written by Shakespeare in his earliest period. +But instead of the text— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Revenge, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">which makes +the foul offenders quake.</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Tit. Art thou</span></em> Revenge? +and art thou sent to me?”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +the words in italics ought to be omitted. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123">[pg 123]</span><a name="Pg123" id="Pg123" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc43" id="toc43"></a> +<a name="pdf44" id="pdf44"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Troilus And Cressida.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us that the story of </span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Troilus +and Cressida</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard: +but Dryden goes yet further; he declares it to have been written in +Latin verse, and that Chaucer translated it. </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Lollius was a historiographer +of Urbino in Italy.</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—Note in Stockdale's edition, 1807. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Lollius was a historiographer of Urbino in +Italy.”</span> So affirms the notary to whom the +Sieur Stockdale committed the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">disfaciménto</span></span> of +Ayscough's excellent edition of Shakespeare. +Pity that the researchful notary has not either +told us in what century, and of what history, he +was a writer, or been simply content to depose, +that Lollius, if a writer of that name existed at +all, was a somewhat somewhere. The notary +speaks of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Troy Boke</span></span> of Lydgate, printed in +1513. I have never seen it; but I deeply regret +that Chalmers did not substitute the whole of +Lydgate's works from the MSS. extant, for the +almost worthless Gower. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Troilus and Cressida</span></span> of Shakespeare can +scarcely be classed with his dramas of Greek and +Roman history; but it forms an intermediate link +between the fictitious Greek and Roman histories, +which we may call legendary dramas, and the +proper ancient histories,—that is, between the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pericles</span></span> or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Titus Andronicus</span></span>, +and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Coriolanus</span></span> +or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Julius Cæsar</span></span>. +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cymbeline</span></span> is a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">congener</span></span> with +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pericles</span></span>, and distinguished from +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> by not +having any declared prominent object. But where +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124">[pg 124]</span><a name="Pg124" id="Pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +shall we class the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Timon of Athens</span></span>? Perhaps +immediately below <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>. It is a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> of the +satirical drama; a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> of domestic or ordinary +life;—a local eddy of passion on the high road of +society, while all around is the week-day goings +on of wind and weather; a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, therefore, without +its soul-searching flashes, its ear-cleaving +thunder-claps, its meteoric splendours,—without +the contagion and the fearful sympathies of +nature, the fates, the furies, the frenzied elements, +dancing in and out, now breaking through and +scattering,—now hand in hand with,—the fierce +or fantastic group of human passions, crimes, and +anguishes, reeling on the unsteady ground, in a +wild harmony to the shock and the swell of an +earthquake. But my present subject was <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Troilus +and Cressida</span></span>; and I suppose that, scarcely knowing +what to say of it, I by a cunning of instinct +ran off to subjects on which I should find it difficult not +to say too much, though certain after all +that I should still leave the better part unsaid, +and the gleaning for others richer than my own +harvest. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Indeed, there is no one of Shakespeare's plays +harder to characterise. The name and the remembrances +connected with it, prepare us for the representation +of attachment no less faithful than +fervent on the side of the youth, and of sudden +and shameless inconstancy on the part of the lady. +And this is, indeed, as the gold thread on which +the scenes are strung, though often kept out of +sight and out of mind by gems of greater value +than itself. But as Shakespeare calls forth nothing +from the mausoleum of history, or the catacombs +of tradition, without giving, or eliciting, some +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page125">[pg 125]</span><a name="Pg125" id="Pg125" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +permanent and general interest, and brings forward +no subject which he does not moralise or +intellectualise,—so here he has drawn in Cressida +the portrait of a vehement passion, that, having +its true origin and proper cause in warmth of +temperament, fastens on, rather than fixes to, +some one object by liking and temporary preference. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirit looks out</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">At every joint and motive of her body.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This Shakespeare has contrasted with the profound +affection represented in Troilus, and alone +worthy the name of love;—affection, passionate +indeed,—swoln with the confluence of youthful +instincts and youthful fancy, and growing in the +radiance of hope newly risen, in short, enlarged +by the collective sympathies of nature;—but still +having a depth of calmer element in a will stronger +than desire, more entire than choice, and which +gives permanence to its own act by converting it +into faith and duty. Hence, with excellent judgment, +and with an excellence higher than mere +judgment can give, at the close of the play, when +Cressida has sunk into infamy below retrieval and +beneath hope, the same will, which had been the +substance and the basis of his love, while the restless +pleasures and passionate longings, like sea-waves, +had tossed but on its surface,—this same +moral energy is represented as snatching him aloof +from all neighbourhood with her dishonour, from +all lingering fondness and languishing regrets, +whilst it rushes with him into other and nobler +duties, and deepens the channel, which his heroic +brother's death had left empty for its collected +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126">[pg 126]</span><a name="Pg126" id="Pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +flood. Yet another secondary and subordinate +purpose Shakespeare has inwoven with his delineation +of these two characters,—that of opposing +the inferior civilisation, but purer morals, of the +Trojans to the refinements, deep policy, but duplicity +and sensual corruptions of the Greeks. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +To all this, however, so little comparative projection +is given,—nay, the masterly group of +Agamemnon, Nestor, and Ulysses, and, still more +in advance, that of Achilles, Ajax, and Thersites, +so manifestly occupying the fore-ground, that the +subservience and vassalage of strength and animal +courage to intellect and policy seems to be the +lesson most often in our poet's view, and which he +has taken little pains to connect with the former +more interesting moral impersonated in the titular +hero and heroine of the drama. But I am half +inclined to believe, that Shakespeare's main object, +or shall I rather say his ruling impulse, was to +translate the poetic heroes of paganism into the +not less rude, but more intellectually vigorous, +and more <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">featurely</span></em>, warriors of Christian chivalry,—and +to substantiate the distinct and graceful +profiles or outlines of the Homeric epic into the +flesh and blood of the romantic drama;—in short, +to give a grand history-piece in the robust style +of Albert Durer. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The character of Thersites, in particular, well +deserves a more careful examination, as the Caliban +of demagogic life;—the admirable portrait of intellectual +power deserted by all grace, all moral +principle, all not momentary impulse;—just wise +enough to detect the weak head, and fool enough +to provoke the armed fist of his betters;—one whom +malcontent Achilles can inveigle from malcontent +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127">[pg 127]</span><a name="Pg127" id="Pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Ajax, under the one condition, that he shall be +called on to do nothing but abuse and slander, and +that he shall be allowed to abuse as much and as +purulently as he likes, that is, as he can;—in short, +a mule,—quarrelsome by the original discord of his +nature;—a slave by tenure of his own baseness,—made +to bray and be brayed at, to despise and be +despicable. <span class="tei tei-q">“Aye, Sir, but say what you will, he +is a very clever fellow, though the best friends will +fall out. There was a time when Ajax thought he +deserved to have a statue of gold erected to him +and handsome Achilles, at the head of the Myrmidons, +gave no little credit to his <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">friend Thersites</span></span>!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 5. Speech of Ulysses:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That give a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">coasting</span></em> welcome ere it comes”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Should it be <span class="tei tei-q">“accosting?”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“Accost her, knight, +accost!”</span> in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Twelfth Night</span></span>. Yet there sounds +a something so Shakespearian in the phrase—<span class="tei tei-q">“give +a coasting welcome”</span> (<span class="tei tei-q">“coasting”</span> being taken as +the epithet and adjective of <span class="tei tei-q">“welcome”</span>), that had +the following words been, <span class="tei tei-q">“ere <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">they land</span></em>,”</span> instead +of <span class="tei tei-q">“ere it comes,”</span> I should have preferred the +interpretation. The sense now is, <span class="tei tei-q">“that give +welcome to a salute ere it comes.”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page129">[pg 129]</span><a name="Pg129" id="Pg129" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc45" id="toc45"></a> +<a name="pdf46" id="pdf46"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Coriolanus.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This play illustrates the wonderfully philosophic +impartiality of Shakespeare's politics. His own +country's history furnished him with no matter +but what was too recent to be devoted to patriotism. +Besides, he knew that the instruction of ancient +history would seem more dispassionate. In <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Coriolanus</span></span> +and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Julius Cæsar</span></span>, you see Shakespeare's +good-natured laugh at mobs. Compare this with +Sir Thomas Brown's aristocracy of spirit. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Marcius' speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He that depends</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I suspect that Shakespeare wrote it transposed! +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Trust ye? Hang ye!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 10. Speech of Aufidius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Mine emulation</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Hath not that honour in't, it had; for where</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I thought to crush him in an equal force,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">True sword to sword; I'll potch at him some way</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or wrath, or craft may get him.—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... My valour (poison'd</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With only suffering stain by him) for him</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Shall fly out of itself: nor sleep, nor sanctuary,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Being naked, sick, nor fane, nor capitol,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The prayers of priests, nor times of sacrifices,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Embankments all of fury, shall lift up</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">My hate to Marcius.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have such deep faith in Shakespeare's heart-lore, +that I take for granted that this is in nature, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page130">[pg 130]</span><a name="Pg130" id="Pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +and not as a mere anomaly; although I cannot in +myself discover any germ of possible feeling, which +could wax and unfold itself into such sentiment as +this. However, I perceive that in this speech is +meant to be contained a prevention of shock at the +after-change in Aufidius's character. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Speech of Menenius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The most sovereign prescription in <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Galen</span></span>,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Was it without, or in contempt of, historical information +that Shakespeare made the contemporaries +of Coriolanus quote Cato and Galen? I cannot +decide to my own satisfaction. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Speech of Coriolanus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Why in this wolvish toge should I stand hero”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +That the gown of the candidate was of whitened +wool, we know. Does <span class="tei tei-q">“wolvish”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“woolvish”</span> +mean <span class="tei tei-q">“made of wool?”</span> If it means <span class="tei tei-q">“wolfish,”</span> +what is the sense? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 7. Speech of Aufidius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“All places yield to him ere he sits down,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have always thought this, in itself so beautiful +speech, the least explicable from the mood and full +intention of the speaker of any in the whole works +of Shakespeare. I cherish the hope that I am +mistaken, and that, becoming wiser, I shall discover +some profound excellence in that, in which I +now appear to detect an imperfection. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page131">[pg 131]</span><a name="Pg131" id="Pg131" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc47" id="toc47"></a> +<a name="pdf48" id="pdf48"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Julius Cæsar.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mar.</span></span> What meanest <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">thou</span></em> +by that? Mend me, thou saucy</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">fellow!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The speeches of Flavius and Marullus are in +blank verse. Wherever regular metre can be +rendered truly imitative of character, passion, or +personal rank, Shakespeare seldom, if ever, neglects +it. Hence this line should be read:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“What mean'st by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I say regular metre: for even the prose has in the +highest and lowest dramatic personage, a Cobbler +or a Hamlet, a rhythm so felicitous and so severally +appropriate, as to be a virtual metre. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Bru.</span></span> A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this +line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic +contempt, characterising Brutus even in his +first casual speech. The line is a trimeter,—each +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dipodia</span></span> containing two accented and two unaccented +syllables, but variously arranged, as thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">u - - u | - u u - | u - u -</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A soothsayer | bids you beware | the Ides of March.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Brutus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And I will look on <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">both</span></em> indifferently.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton would read <span class="tei tei-q">“death”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“both;”</span> but +I prefer the old text. There are here three things, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132">[pg 132]</span><a name="Pg132" id="Pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the public good, the individual Brutus' honour, and +his death. The latter two so balanced each other, +that he could decide for the first by equipoise; nay—the +thought growing—that honour had more +weight than death. That Cassius understood it as +Warburton, is the beauty of Cassius as contrasted +with Brutus. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Cæsar's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He loves no plays</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">This is not a trivial observation, nor does our poet mean barely +by it, that Cassius was not a merry, sprightly man; but that he had +not a due temperament of harmony in his disposition.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—Theobald's +note. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O Theobald! what a commentator wast thou, +when thou would'st affect to understand Shakespeare, +instead of contenting thyself with collating +the text! The meaning here is too deep for a line +ten-fold the length of thine to fathom. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Cæsar's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Be <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">factious</span></em> for redress of all these griefs;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And I will set this foot of mine as far,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">As who goes farthest.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I understand it thus: <span class="tei tei-q">“You have spoken as a +conspirator; be so in <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">fact</span></em>, and I will join you. +Act on your principles, and realize them in a fact.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Speech of Brutus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“It must be by his death; and, for my part,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I know no personal cause to spurn at him,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But for the general. He would be crown'd:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">How that might change his nature, there's the question.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... And, to speak truth of Cæsar,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I have not known when his affections sway'd</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">More than his reason.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... So Cæsar may;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Then, lest he may, prevent.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This speech is singular;—at least, I do not at +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page133">[pg 133]</span><a name="Pg133" id="Pg133" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +present see into Shakespeare's motive, his <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">rationale</span></em>, +or in what point of view he meant Brutus' character +to appear. For surely—(this, I mean, is what I say +to myself, with my present <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quantum</span></span> of insight, +only modified by my experience in how many instances +I have ripened into a perception of beauties, +where I had before descried faults;) surely, nothing +can seem more discordant with our historical preconceptions +of Brutus, or more lowering to the +intellect of the Stoico-Platonic tyrannicide, than +the tenets here attributed to him—to him, the +stern Roman republican; namely,—that he would +have no objection to a king, or to Cæsar, a monarch +in Rome, would Cæsar but be as good a monarch +as he now seems disposed to be! How, too, could +Brutus say that he found no personal cause—none +in Cæsar's past conduct as a man? Had he not +passed the Rubicon? Had he not entered Rome as +a conqueror? Had he not placed his Gauls in the +Senate?—Shakespeare, it may be said, has not +brought these things forward—True;—and this is +just the ground of my perplexity. What character +did Shakespeare mean his Brutus to be? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Brutus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For if thou <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">path</span></em>, thy native semblance on.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Surely, there need be no scruple in treating this +<span class="tei tei-q">“path”</span> as a mere misprint or mis-script for <span class="tei tei-q">“put.”</span> +In what place does Shakespeare—where does any +other writer of the same age—use <span class="tei tei-q">“path”</span> as a +verb for <span class="tei tei-q">“walk?”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Cæsar's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“She dreamt to-night, she saw my <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">statue</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +No doubt, it should be <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">statua</span></span>, as in the same age, +they more often pronounced <span class="tei tei-q">“heroes”</span> as a trisyllable +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page134">[pg 134]</span><a name="Pg134" id="Pg134" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +than dissyllable. A modern tragic poet would +have written,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Last night she dreamt that she my statue saw.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But Shakespeare never avails himself of the supposed +license of transposition, merely for the metre. +There is always some logic either of thought or +passion to justify it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1. Antony's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Pardon me, Julius—here wast thou bay'd, brave hart:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">O world! thou wast the forest to this hart,</span></em></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">And this, indeed, O world! the heart of thee.</span></em>”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I doubt the genuineness of the last two lines;—not +because they are vile; but first, on account of +the rhythm, which is not Shakespearian, but just +the very tune of some old play, from which the +actor might have interpolated them;—and secondly, +because they interrupt, not only the sense and +connection, but likewise the flow both of the passion, +and (what is with me still more decisive) of +the Shakespearian link of association. As with +many another parenthesis or gloss slipt into the +text, we have only to read the passage without it, +to see that it never was in it. I venture to say +there is no instance in Shakespeare fairly like this. +Conceits he has; but they not only rise out of some +word in the lines before, but also lead to the thought +in the lines following. Here the conceit is a mere +alien: Antony forgets an image, when he is even +touching it, and then recollects it, when the thought +last in his mind must have led him away from it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. Speech of Brutus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“What, shall one of us,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That struck the foremost man of all this world,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But for <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">supporting robbers</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page135">[pg 135]</span><a name="Pg135" id="Pg135" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This seemingly strange assertion of Brutus is +unhappily verified in the present day. What is +an immense army, in which the lust of plunder has +quenched all the duties of the citizen, other than a +horde of robbers, or differenced only as fiends are +from ordinarily reprobate men? Cæsar supported, +and was supported by, such as these;—and even so +Buonaparte in our days. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I know no part of Shakespeare that more impresses +on me the belief of his genius being superhuman, +than this scene between Brutus and Cassius. +In the Gnostic heresy it might have been credited +with less absurdity than most of their dogmas, that +the Supreme had employed him to create, previously +to his function of representing, characters. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page137">[pg 137]</span><a name="Pg137" id="Pg137" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc49" id="toc49"></a> +<a name="pdf50" id="pdf50"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Antony And Cleopatra.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare can be complimented only by +comparison with himself: all other eulogies are +either heterogeneous, as when they are in reference +to Spenser or Milton; or they are flat truisms, as +when he is gravely preferred to Corneille, Racine, +or even his own immediate successors, Beaumont +and Fletcher, Massinger and the rest. The highest +praise, or rather form of praise, of this play, which +I can offer in my own mind, is the doubt which the +perusal always occasions in me, whether the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Antony +and Cleopatra</span></span> is not, in all exhibitions of a giant +power in its strength and vigour of maturity, a +formidable rival of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>, and +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span>. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Feliciter audax</span></span> +is the motto for its style +comparatively with that of Shakespeare's other +works, even as it is the general motto of all his +works compared with those of other poets. Be it +remembered, too, that this happy valiancy of style +is but the representative and result of all the +material excellencies so expressed. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This play should be perused in mental contrast +with <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>;—as the love of passion +and appetite opposed to the love of affection and +instinct. But the art displayed in the character of +Cleopatra is profound; in this, especially, that the +sense of criminality in her passion is lessened by +our insight into its depth and energy, at the very +moment that we cannot but perceive that the passion +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page138">[pg 138]</span><a name="Pg138" id="Pg138" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +itself springs out of the habitual craving of a +licentious nature, and that it is supported and +reinforced by voluntary stimulus and sought-for +associations, instead of blossoming out of spontaneous +emotion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Of all Shakespeare's historical plays, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Antony and +Cleopatra</span></span> is by far the most wonderful. There is +not one in which he has followed history so +minutely, and yet there are few in which he impresses +the notion of angelic strength so much;—perhaps +none in which he impresses it more +strongly. This is greatly owing to the manner in +which the fiery force is sustained throughout, and +to the numerous momentary flashes of nature counteracting +the historic abstraction. As a wonderful +specimen of the way in which Shakespeare lives up +to the very end of this play, read the last part of +the concluding scene. And if you would feel the +judgment as well as the genius of Shakespeare in +your heart's core, compare this astonishing drama +with Dryden's <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">All For Love</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Philo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“His captain's heart</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The buckles on his breast, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">reneges</span></em> all temper.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It should be <span class="tei tei-q">“reneagues,”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“reniegues,”</span> as +<span class="tei tei-q">“fatigues,”</span> &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Take but good note, and you shall see in him</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The triple pillar of the world transform'd</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Into a strumpet's <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">fool</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's conjecture of <span class="tei tei-q">“stool”</span> is ingenious, +and would be a probable reading, if the scene opening +had discovered Antony with Cleopatra on his +lap. But, represented as he is walking and jesting +with her, <span class="tei tei-q">“fool”</span> must be the word. Warburton's +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139">[pg 139]</span><a name="Pg139" id="Pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +objection is shallow, and implies that he confounded +the dramatic with the epic style. The <span class="tei tei-q">“pillar”</span> +of a state is so common a metaphor as to have lost +the image in the thing meant to be imaged. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Much is breeding;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And not a serpent's poison.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is so far true to appearance, that a horse-hair, +<span class="tei tei-q">“laid,”</span> as Hollinshed says, <span class="tei tei-q">“in a pail of +water,”</span> will become the supporter of seemingly one +worm, though probably of an immense number of +small slimy water-lice. The hair will twirl round +a finger, and sensibly compress it. It is a common +experiment with school boys in Cumberland and +Westmoreland. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 2. Speech of Enobarbus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">So many <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">mermaids</span></em>, tended her i' th' eyes,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And made their bends adornings. At the helm</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A seeming mermaid steers.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have the greatest difficulty in believing that +Shakespeare wrote the first <span class="tei tei-q">“mermaids.”</span> He +never, I think, would have so weakened by useless +anticipation the fine image immediately following. +The epithet <span class="tei tei-q">“seeming”</span> becomes so extremely improper +after the whole number had been positively +called <span class="tei tei-q">“so many mermaids.”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page141">[pg 141]</span><a name="Pg141" id="Pg141" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc51" id="toc51"></a> +<a name="pdf52" id="pdf52"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Timon Of Athens.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Tim.</span></span> The man is honest.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Old Ath.</span></span> <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Therefore he will be</span></em>, Timon.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">His honesty rewards him in itself.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's comment—<span class="tei tei-q">“If the man be +honest, for that reason he will be so in this, +and not endeavour at the injustice of gaining my +daughter without my consent”</span>—is, like almost all +his comments, ingenious in blunder; he can never +see any other writer's thoughts for the mist-working +swarm of his own. The meaning of the first line +the poet himself explains, or rather unfolds, in the +second. <span class="tei tei-q">“The man is honest!”</span>—<span class="tei tei-q">“True;—and for +that very cause, and with no additional or extrinsic +motive, he will be so. No man can be justly called +honest, who is not so for honesty's sake, itself including +its own reward.”</span> Note, that <span class="tei tei-q">“honesty”</span> in +Shakespeare's age retained much of its old dignity, +and that contradistinction of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">honestum</span></span> from the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">utile</span></span>, in which its very essence and definition consist. +If it be <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">honestum</span></span>, it cannot depend on the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">utile</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Apemantus, printed as prose in +Theobald's edition:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“So, so! aches contract, and starve your supple joints!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I may remark here the fineness of Shakespeare's +sense of musical period, which would almost by itself +have suggested (if the hundred positive proofs +had not been extant) that the word <span class="tei tei-q">“aches”</span> was +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page142">[pg 142]</span><a name="Pg142" id="Pg142" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +then <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ad libitum</span></span>, a +dissyllable—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">aitches</span></span>. For read +it <span class="tei tei-q">“aches,”</span> in this sentence, and I would challenge +you to find any period in Shakespeare's writings +with the same musical or, rather dissonant, notation. +Try the one, and then the other, by your +ear, reading the sentence aloud, first with the word +as a dissyllable and then as a monosyllable, and you +will feel what I mean. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Cupid's speech: Warburton's correction +of— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“There taste, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rise”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +into +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Th' ear, taste, touch, smell,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is indeed an excellent emendation. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Senator's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Nor then silenc'd with</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Commend me to your master”</span>—<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">and the cap</span></em></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Plays in the right hand, thus</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Either, methinks, <span class="tei tei-q">“plays”</span> should be <span class="tei tei-q">“play'd,”</span> +or <span class="tei tei-q">“and”</span> should be changed to <span class="tei tei-q">“while.”</span> I +can certainly understand it as a parenthesis, an +interadditive of scorn; but it does not sound to my +ear as in Shakespeare's manner. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Timon's speech (Theobald):— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And that unaptness made <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">you</span></em> minister,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Thus to excuse yourself.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">your</span></em>;—at least I cannot otherwise understand +the line. You made my chance indisposition +and occasional inaptness your minister—that is, the +ground on which you now excuse yourself. Or, +perhaps, no correction is necessary, if we construe +<span class="tei tei-q">“made you”</span> as <span class="tei tei-q">“did you make;”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“and that unaptness +did you make help you thus to excuse +yourself.”</span> But the former seems more in Shakespeare's +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page143">[pg 143]</span><a name="Pg143" id="Pg143" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +manner, and is less liable to be misunderstood. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 3. Servant's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">How fairly this lord strives to appear foul!—takes virtuous +copies to be wicked; </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">like those that under hot, ardent zeal would set +whole realms on fire. Of such a nature is his politic love</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This latter clause I grievously suspect to have +been an addition of the players, which had hit, and, +being constantly applauded, procured a settled +occupation in the prompter's copy. Not that +Shakespeare does not elsewhere sneer at the Puritans; +but here it is introduced so <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">nolenter volenter</span></span> +(excuse the phrase) by the head and shoulders!—and +is besides so much more likely to have been +conceived in the age of Charles I. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. Timon's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Raise me this beggar, and <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">deny't</span></em> that lord.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton reads <span class="tei tei-q">“denude.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I cannot see the necessity of this alteration. The +editors and commentators are, all of them, ready +enough to cry out against Shakespeare's laxities +and licenses of style, forgetting that he is not +merely a poet, but a dramatic poet; that, when the +head and the heart are swelling with fulness, a +man does not ask himself whether he has grammatically +arranged, but only whether (the context +taken in) he has conveyed his meaning. <span class="tei tei-q">“Deny”</span> +is here clearly equal to <span class="tei tei-q">“withhold;”</span> and the <span class="tei tei-q">“it,”</span> +quite in the genius of vehement conversation, which +a syntaxist explains by ellipses and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">subauditurs</span></span> in +a Greek or Latin classic, yet triumphs over as +ignorances in a contemporary, refers to accidental +and artificial rank or elevation, implied in the verb +<span class="tei tei-q">“raise.”</span> Besides, does the word <span class="tei tei-q">“denude”</span> occur +in any writer before, or of, Shakespeare's age? +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page145">[pg 145]</span><a name="Pg145" id="Pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc53" id="toc53"></a> +<a name="pdf54" id="pdf54"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Romeo And Juliet.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have previously had occasion to speak at large +on the subject of the three unities of time, place, +and action, as applied to the drama in the abstract, +and to the particular stage for which Shakespeare +wrote, as far as he can be said to have written for +any stage but that of the universal mind. I hope +I have in some measure succeeded in demonstrating +that the former two, instead of being rules, +were mere inconveniences attached to the local +peculiarities of the Athenian drama; that the last +alone deserved the name of a principle, and that in +the preservation of this unity Shakespeare stood +pre-eminent. Yet, instead of unity of action, I +should greatly prefer the more appropriate, though +scholastic and uncouth, words homogeneity, proportionateness, +and totality of interest,—expressions, +which involve the distinction, or rather the +essential difference, betwixt the shaping skill of +mechanical talent, and the creative, productive, +life-power of inspired genius. In the former each +part is separately conceived, and then by a succeeding +act put together;—not as watches are +made for wholesale—(for there each part supposes +a pre-conception of the whole in some mind),—but +more like pictures on a motley screen. Whence +arises the harmony that strikes us in the wildest +natural landscapes,—in the relative shapes of rocks, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146">[pg 146]</span><a name="Pg146" id="Pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the harmony of colours in the heaths, ferns, and +lichens, the leaves of the beech and the oak, the +stems and rich brown branches of the birch and +other mountain trees, varying from verging autumn +to returning spring,—compared with the visual +effect from the greater number of artificial plantations?—From +this, that the natural landscape is +effected, as it were, by a single energy modified <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ab +intra</span></span> in each component part. And as this is the +particular excellence of the Shakespearian drama +generally, so is it especially characteristic of the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The groundwork of the tale is altogether in +family life, and the events of the play have their +first origin in family feuds. Filmy as are the eyes +of party-spirit, at once dim and truculent, still +there is commonly some real or supposed object in +view, or principle to be maintained; and though +but the twisted wires on the plate of rosin in the +preparation for electrical pictures, it is still a guide +in some degree, an assimilation to an outline. But +in family quarrels, which have proved scarcely less +injurious to states, wilfulness, and precipitancy, and +passion from mere habit and custom can alone be +expected. With his accustomed judgment, Shakespeare +has begun by placing before us a lively +picture of all the impulses of the play; and, as +nature ever presents two sides, one for Heraclitus, +and one for Democritus, he has, by way of prelude, +shown the laughable absurdity of the evil by the +contagion of it reaching the servants who have so +little to do with it, but who are under the necessity +of letting the superfluity of sensoreal power fly +off through the escape-valve of wit-combats, and of +quarrelling with weapons of sharper edge, all in +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page147">[pg 147]</span><a name="Pg147" id="Pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +humble imitation of their masters. Yet there is +a sort of unhired fidelity, an <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ourishness</span></span> about all +this that makes it rest pleasant on one's feelings. +All the first scene, down to the conclusion of the +Prince's speech, is a motley dance of all ranks and +ages to one tune, as if the horn of Huon had been +playing behind the scenes. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Benvolio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Peer'd forth the golden window of the east”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and, far more strikingly, the following speech of +old Montague:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Many a morning hath he there been seen</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +prove that Shakespeare meant the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span> +to approach to a poem, which, and indeed its early +date, may be also inferred from the multitude of +rhyming couplets throughout. And if we are right, +from the internal evidence, in pronouncing this one +of Shakespeare's early dramas, it affords a strong +instance of the fineness of his insight into the nature +of the passions, that Romeo is introduced already +love-bewildered. The necessity of loving creates +an object for itself in man and woman; and yet +there is a difference in this respect between the +sexes, though only to be known by a perception of +it. It would have displeased us if Juliet had been +represented as already in love, or as fancying herself +so;—but no one, I believe, ever experiences +any shock at Romeo's forgetting his Rosaline, who +had been a mere name for the yearning of his +youthful imagination, and rushing into his passion +for Juliet. Rosaline was a mere creation of his +fancy; and we should remark the boastful positiveness +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page148">[pg 148]</span><a name="Pg148" id="Pg148" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +of Romeo in a love of his own making, which +is never shown where love is really near the heart. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“When the devout religion of mine eye</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires!</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The character of the Nurse is the nearest of any +thing in Shakespeare to a direct borrowing from +mere observation; and the reason is, that as in +infancy and childhood the individual in nature is +a representative of a class,—just as in describing +one larch tree, you generalise a grove of them,—so +it is nearly as much so in old age. The generalisation +is done to the poet's hand. Here you have +the garrulity of age strengthened by the feelings of +a long-trusted servant, whose sympathy with the +mother's affections gives her privileges and rank +in the household; and observe the mode of connection +by accidents of time and place, and the +childlike fondness of repetition in a second childhood, +and also that happy humble, ducking under, +yet constant resurgence against, the check of her +superiors!— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yes, madam!—Yet I cannot choose but laugh,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the fourth scene we have Mercutio introduced +to us. O! how shall I describe that exquisite +ebullience and overflow of youthful life, wafted on +over the laughing waves of pleasure and prosperity, +as a wanton beauty that distorts the face on which +she knows her lover is gazing enraptured, and +wrinkles her forehead in the triumph of its smoothness! +Wit ever wakeful, fancy busy and procreative +as an insect, courage, an easy mind that, +without cares of its own, is at once disposed to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page149">[pg 149]</span><a name="Pg149" id="Pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +laugh away those of others, and yet to be interested +in them,—these and all congenial qualities, +melting into the common <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">copula</span></span> of them all, the +man of rank and the gentleman, with all its excellencies +and all its weaknesses, constitute the character +of Mercutio! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Tyb.</span></span> It fits when such a +villain is a guest;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I'll not endure him.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cap.</span></span> He shall be endur'd.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">What, goodman boy!—I say, he shall:—Go to;—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Am I the master here, or you?—Go to.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">You'll not endure him!—God shall mend my soul—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">You'll make a mutiny among my guests!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Tyb.</span></span> Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cap.</span></span> Go to, go to,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">You are a saucy boy!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How admirable is the old man's impetuosity at +once contrasting, yet harmonised, with young +Tybalt's quarrelsome violence! But it would be +endless to repeat observations of this sort. Every +leaf is different on an oak tree; but still we can +only say—our tongues defrauding our eyes— <span class="tei tei-q">“This +is another oak-leaf!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 2. The garden scene. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Take notice in this enchanting scene of the contrast +of Romeo's love with his former fancy; and +weigh the skill shown in justifying him from his +inconstancy by making us feel the difference of his +passion. Yet this, too, is a love in, although not +merely of, the imagination. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Jul.</span></span> +Well, do not swear; although I joy in thee,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I have no joy in this contract to-night:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +With love, pure love, there is always an anxiety +for the safety of the object, a disinterestedness, by +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150">[pg 150]</span><a name="Pg150" id="Pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +which it is distinguished from the counterfeits of +its name. Compare this scene with Act iii. sc. 1 +of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Tempest</span></span>. I do not know a more wonderful +instance of Shakespeare's mastery in playing a +distinctly rememberable variety on the same remembered +air, than in the transporting love confessions +of Romeo and Juliet and Ferdinand and +Miranda. There seems more passion in the one, +and more dignity in the other; yet you feel that +the sweet girlish lingering and busy movement of +Juliet, and the calmer and more maidenly fondness +of Miranda, might easily pass into each other. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. The Friar's speech. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The reverend character of the Friar, like all +Shakespeare's representations of the great professions, +is very delightful and tranquillising, yet it +is no digression, but immediately necessary to the +carrying on of the plot. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Rom.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give +you?</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Compare again Romeo's half-exerted, and half +real, ease of mind with his first manner when in +love with Rosaline! His will had come to the +clenching point. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Rom.</span></span> Do thou but +close our hands with holy words,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Then love-devouring death do what he dare,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">It is enough I may but call her mine.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The precipitancy, which is the character of the +play, is well marked in this short scene of waiting +for Juliet's arrival. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Mer.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church +door; but 'tis enough: 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you +shall find me a grave man,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page151">[pg 151]</span><a name="Pg151" id="Pg151" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How fine an effect the wit and raillery habitual +to Mercutio, even struggling with his pain, give +to Romeo's following speech, and at the same time +so completely justifying his passionate revenge +on Tybalt! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Benvolio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“But that he tilts</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This small portion of untruth in Benvolio's +narrative is finely conceived. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Juliet's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Indeed the whole of this speech is imagination +strained to the highest; and observe the blessed +effect on the purity of the mind. What would +Dryden have made of it? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Nurse.</span></span> Shame come to Romeo.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Jul.</span></span> Blister'd be thy tongue</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">For such a wish!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Note the Nurse's mistake of the mind's audible +struggles with itself for its decision <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">in toto</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Romeo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven's here,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Where Juliet lives,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +All deep passions are a sort of atheists, that +believe no future. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cap.</span></span> Soft! +take me with you, take me with you, wife—How!</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">will she none?”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A noble scene! Don't I see it with my own +eyes?—Yes! but not with Juliet's. And observe +in Capulet's last speech in this scene his mistake, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152">[pg 152]</span><a name="Pg152" id="Pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +as if love's causes were capable of being +generalised. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. Juliet's speech.:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Upon a rapier's point:—Stay, Tybalt, stay!—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare provides for the finest decencies. +It would have been too bold a thing for a girl of +fifteen;—but she swallows the draught in a fit of +fright. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +As the audience know that Juliet is not dead, +this scene is, perhaps, excusable. But it is a +strong warning to minor dramatists not to introduce +at one time many separate characters agitated +by one and the same circumstance. It is difficult +to understand what effect, whether that of pity or +of laughter, Shakespeare meant to produce;—the +occasion and the characteristic speeches are so +little in harmony! For example, what the Nurse +says is excellently suited to the Nurse's character, +but grotesquely unsuited to the occasion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 1. Romeo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O mischief! thou art swift</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I do remember an apothecary,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This famous passage is so beautiful as to be self-justified; +yet, in addition, what a fine preparation +it is for the tomb scene! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Romeo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Fly hence and leave me.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The gentleness of Romeo was shown before, as +softened by love; and now it is doubled by love +and sorrow and awe of the place where he is. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page153">[pg 153]</span><a name="Pg153" id="Pg153" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Romeo's speech:—-- +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“How oft when men are at the point of death</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Have they been merry! which their keepers call</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A lightning before death. O, how may I</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Call this a lightning?—--O, my love, my wife!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Here, here, is the master example how beauty +can at once increase and modify passion! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Last scene. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How beautiful is the close! The spring and +the winter meet;—winter assumes the character +of spring, and spring the sadness of winter. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page155">[pg 155]</span><a name="Pg155" id="Pg155" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc55" id="toc55"></a> +<a name="pdf56" id="pdf56"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Shakespeare's English Historical Plays.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The first form of poetry is the epic, the essence +of which may be stated as the successive in +events and characters. This must be distinguished +from narration, in which there must always be a +narrator, from whom the objects represented receive +a colouring and a manner;—whereas in the +epic, as in the so-called poems of Homer, the whole +is completely objective, and the representation is a +pure reflection. The next form into which poetry +passed was the dramatic;—both forms having a +common basis with a certain difference, and that +difference not consisting in the dialogue alone. +Both are founded on the relation of providence to +the human will; and this relation is the universal +element, expressed under different points of view +according to the difference of religion, and the +moral and intellectual cultivation of different +nations. In the epic poem fate is represented as +overruling the will, and making it instrumental +to the accomplishment of its designs:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... Διὸς τελείετο βονλή</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the drama, the will is exhibited as struggling +with fate, a great and beautiful instance and illustration +of which is the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Prometheus</span></span> of Æschylus; +and the deepest effect is produced when the fate +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page156">[pg 156]</span><a name="Pg156" id="Pg156" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +is represented as a higher and intelligent will, and +the opposition of the individual as springing from +a defect. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In order that a drama may be properly historical, +it is necessary that it should be the history +of the people to whom it is addressed. In the +composition, care must be taken that there appear +no dramatic improbability, as the reality is taken +for granted. It must, likewise, be poetical;—that +only, I mean, must be taken which is the permanent +in our nature, which is common, and +therefore deeply interesting to all ages. The +events themselves are immaterial, otherwise than +as the clothing and manifestation of the spirit +that is working within. In this mode, the unity +resulting from succession is destroyed, but is supplied +by a unity of a higher order, which connects +the events by reference to the workers, gives a +reason for them in the motives, and presents men +in their causative character. It takes, therefore, +that part of real history which is the least known, +and infuses a principle of life and organisation +into the naked facts, and makes them all the +framework of an animated whole. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In my happier days, while I had yet hope and +onward-looking thoughts, I planned an historical +drama of King Stephen, in the manner of Shakespeare. +Indeed, it would be desirable that some +man of dramatic genius should dramatise all those +omitted by Shakespeare, as far down as Henry +VII. Perkin Warbeck would make a most interesting +drama. A few scenes of Marlow's +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Edward II.</span></span> might be preserved. After Henry +VIII., the events are too well and distinctly +known, to be, without plump inverisimilitude, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page157">[pg 157]</span><a name="Pg157" id="Pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +crowded together in one night's exhibition. +Whereas, the history of our ancient kings—the +events of the reigns, I mean—are like stars in the +sky;—whatever the real interspaces may be, and +however great, they seem close to each other. +The stars—the events—strike us and remain in +our eye, little modified by the difference of dates. +An historic drama is, therefore, a collection of +events borrowed from history, but connected together +in respect of cause and time, poetically and +by dramatic fiction. It would be a fine national +custom to act such a series of dramatic histories in +orderly succession, in the yearly Christmas holidays, +and could not but tend to counteract that +mock cosmopolitism, which under a positive term +really implies nothing but a negation of, or indifference +to, the particular love of our country. +By its nationality must every nation retain its +independence;—I mean a nationality <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quoad</span></span> the +nation. Better thus;—nationality in each individual, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quoad</span></span> his country, is equal to the sense of +individuality <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quoad</span></span> himself; but himself as sub-sensuous +and central. Patriotism is equal to the +sense of individuality reflected from every other +individual. There may come a higher virtue in +both—just cosmopolitism. But this latter is not +possible but by antecedence of the former. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare has included the most important +part of nine reigns in his historical dramas;—namely—King +John, Richard II.—Henry IV. +(two)—Henry V.—Henry VI. (three) including +Edward V. and Henry VIII., in all ten plays. +There remain, therefore, to be done, with the exception +of a single scene or two that should be +adopted from Marlow—eleven reigns—of which +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page158">[pg 158]</span><a name="Pg158" id="Pg158" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +the first two appear the only unpromising subjects;—and +those two dramas must be formed wholly or +mainly of invented private stories, which, however, +could not have happened except in consequence +of the events and measures of these reigns, +and which should furnish opportunity both of exhibiting +the manners and oppressions of the times, +and of narrating dramatically the great events;—if +possible, the death of the two sovereigns, at +least of the latter, should be made to have some +influence on the finale of the story. All the rest +are glorious subjects; especially Henry I. (being +the struggle between the men of arms and of +letters, in the persons of Henry and Becket), +Stephen, Richard I., Edward II., and Henry VII. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page159">[pg 159]</span><a name="Pg159" id="Pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc57" id="toc57"></a> +<a name="pdf58" id="pdf58"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">King John.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Bast.</span></span> James Gurney, +wilt thou give us leave awhile?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Gur.</span></span> Good leave, good Philip.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Bast.</span></span> Philip? +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">sparrow!</span></em> James,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald adopts Warburton's conjecture +of <span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">spare me</span></em>.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O true Warburton! and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sancta simplicitas</span></span> +of honest dull Theobald's faith in him! Nothing +can be more lively or characteristic than <span class="tei tei-q">“Philip? +Sparrow!”</span> Had Warburton read old Skelton's +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Philip Sparrow</span></span>, an exquisite and original poem, +and, no doubt, popular in Shakespeare's time, even +Warburton would scarcely have made so deep a +plunge into the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">bathetic</span></span> as to have deathified +<span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">sparrow</span></em>”</span> into <span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">spare me</span></em>!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 2. Speech of Faulconbridge:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Some <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">airy</span></em> devil hovers in the sky,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald adopts Warburton's conjecture of <span class="tei tei-q">“fiery.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I prefer the old text: the word <span class="tei tei-q">“devil”</span> implies +<span class="tei tei-q">“fiery.”</span> You need only read the line, laying a +full and strong emphasis on <span class="tei tei-q">“devil,”</span> to perceive +the uselessness and tastelessness of Warburton's +alteration. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page161">[pg 161]</span><a name="Pg161" id="Pg161" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc59" id="toc59"></a> +<a name="pdf60" id="pdf60"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Richard II.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have stated that the transitional link between +the epic poem and the drama is the +historic drama; that in the epic poem a pre-announced +fate gradually adjusts and employs the +will and the events as its instruments, whilst the +drama, on the other hand, places fate and will in +opposition to each other, and is then most perfect, +when the victory of fate is obtained in consequence +of imperfections in the opposing will, so as +to leave a final impression that the fate itself is +but a higher and a more intelligent will. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +From the length of the speeches, and the circumstance +that, with one exception, the events are +all historical, and presented in their results, not +produced by acts seen by, or taking place before, +the audience, this tragedy is ill suited to our present +large theatres. But in itself, and for the +closet, I feel no hesitation in placing it as the first +and most admirable of all Shakespeare's purely +historical plays. For the two parts of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry IV.</span></span> +form a species of themselves, which may be named +the mixed drama. The distinction does not depend +on the mere quantity of historical events in the +play compared with the fictions; for there is as +much history in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span> as +in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Richard</span></span>, but in the +relation of the history to the plot. In the purely +historical plays, the history forms the plot; in the +mixed, it directs it; in the rest, as <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cymbeline</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, it subserves it. But, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page162">[pg 162]</span><a name="Pg162" id="Pg162" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +however unsuited to the stage this drama may be, +God forbid that even there it should fall dead on +the hearts of jacobinised Englishmen! Then, +indeed, we might say—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">præteriit gloria mundi!</span></span> +For the spirit of patriotic reminiscence is the all-permeating +soul of this noble work. It is, perhaps, +the most purely historical of Shakespeare's dramas. +There are not in it, as in the others, characters +introduced merely for the purpose of giving a +greater individuality and realness, as in the comic +parts of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry IV.</span></span>, by presenting as it were our +very selves. Shakespeare avails himself of every +opportunity to effect the great object of the historic +drama,—that, namely, of familiarising the +people to the great names of their country, and +thereby of exciting a steady patriotism, a love of +just liberty, and a respect for all those fundamental +institutions of social life, which bind men +together:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This other Eden, demi-paradise;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This fortress, built by nature for herself,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Against infection, and the hand of war;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This happy breed of men, this little world;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This precious stone set in the silver sea,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which serves it in the office of a wall,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or as a moat defensive to a home,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Against the envy of less happier lands;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Add the famous passage in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">King John</span></span>:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This England never did nor ever shall,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But when it first did help to wound itself.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Now these her princes are come home again,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Come the three corners of the world in arms,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And we shall shock them: nought shall make us rue,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">If England to itself do rest but true.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page163">[pg 163]</span><a name="Pg163" id="Pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And it certainly seems that Shakespeare's historic +dramas produced a very deep effect on the minds +of the English people, and in earlier times they +were familiar even to the least informed of all +ranks, according to the relation of Bishop Corbett. +Marlborough, we know, was not ashamed to confess +that his principal acquaintance with English +history was derived from them; and I believe that +a large part of the information as to our old names +and achievements even now abroad is due, directly +or indirectly, to Shakespeare. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Admirable is the judgment with which Shakespeare +always in the first scenes prepares, yet how +naturally, and with what concealment of art, for +the catastrophe. Observe how he here presents +the germ of all the after events in Richard's insincerity, +partiality, arbitrariness, and favouritism, +and in the proud, tempestuous, temperament of +his barons. In the very beginning, also, is displayed +that feature in Richard's character, which +is never forgotten throughout the play—his attention +to decorum, and high feeling of the kingly +dignity. These anticipations show with what +judgment Shakespeare wrote, and illustrate his +care to connect the past and the future, and +unify them with the present by forecast and +reminiscence. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is interesting to a critical ear to compare the +six opening lines of the play— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +each closing at the tenth syllable, with the +rhythmless metre of the verse in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry VI.</span></span> and +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Titus Andronicus</span></span>, in order that the difference, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page164">[pg 164]</span><a name="Pg164" id="Pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +indeed, the heterogeneity, of the two may be felt +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">etiam in simillimis prima superficie</span></span>. Here the +weight of the single words supplies all the relief +afforded by intercurrent verse, while the whole +represents the mood. And compare the apparently +defective metre of Bolingbroke's first line— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Many years of happy days befal”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +with Prospero's— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Twelve years since, Miranda! twelve years since.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The actor should supply the time by emphasis, +and pause on the first syllable of each of these +verses. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Bolingbroke's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“First (heaven be the record to my speech!),</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">In the devotion of a subject's love,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I remember in the Sophoclean drama no more +striking example of the τὸ πρέπον καὶ σεμνὸν than +this speech; and the rhymes in the last six lines +well express the preconcertedness of Bolingbroke's +scheme so beautifully contrasted with the vehemence +and sincere irritation of Mowbray. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Bolingbroke's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">me</span></em>, for justice and rough chastisement.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Note the δεινὸν of this <span class="tei tei-q">“to me,”</span> which is evidently +felt by Richard:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“How high a pitch his resolution soars!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and the affected depreciation afterwards;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“As he is but my father's brother's son.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Mowbray's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“In haste whereof, most heartily I pray</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Your highness to assign our trial day.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page165">[pg 165]</span><a name="Pg165" id="Pg165" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The occasional interspersion of rhymes, and the +more frequent winding up of a speech therewith—what +purpose was this designed to answer? In the +earnest drama, I mean. Deliberateness? An attempt, +as in Mowbray, to collect himself and be +cool at the close?—I can see that in the following +speeches the rhyme answers the end of the Greek +chorus, and distinguishes the general truths from +the passions of the dialogue; but this does not +exactly justify the practice, which is unfrequent in +proportion to the excellence of Shakespeare's plays. +One thing, however, is to be observed,—that the +speakers are historical, known, and so far formal +characters, and their reality is already a fact. This +should be borne in mind. The whole of this scene +of the quarrel between Mowbray and Bolingbroke +seems introduced for the purpose of showing by +anticipation the characters of Richard and Bolingbroke. +In the latter there is observable a decorous +and courtly checking of his anger in subservience +to a predetermined plan, especially in his calm +speech after receiving sentence of banishment compared +with Mowbray's unaffected lamentation. In +the one, all is ambitious hope of something yet to +come; in the other it is desolation and a looking +backward of the heart, +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Gaunt.</span></span> God's is the quarrel; +for God's substitute,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">His deputy anointed in his right,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Hath caus'd his death: the which, if wrongfully,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">An angry arm against his minister.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Without the hollow extravagance of Beaumont +and Fletcher's ultra-royalism, how carefully does +Shakespeare acknowledge and reverence the eternal +distinction between the mere individual, and the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page166">[pg 166]</span><a name="Pg166" id="Pg166" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +symbolic or representative, on which all genial law, +no less than patriotism, depends. The whole of +this second scene commences, and is anticipative +of, the tone and character of the play at large. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. In none of Shakespeare's fictitious +dramas, or in those founded on a history as unknown +to his auditors generally as fiction, is this +violent rupture of the succession of time found:—a +proof, I think, that the pure historic drama, like +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Richard II.</span></span> and +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">King John</span></span>, had its own laws. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Mowbray's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“A dearer <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">merit</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Have I deserved at your highness' hand.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O, the instinctive propriety of Shakespeare in +the choice of words! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Richard's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Nor never by advised purpose meet,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Already the selfish weakness of Richard's character +opens. Nothing will such minds so readily +embrace, as indirect ways softened down to their +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">quasi</span></span>-consciences by policy, expedience, &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Mowbray's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“All the world's my way.”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The world was all before him.”</span>—<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Milt.</span></span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 2.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Boling.</span></span> +How long a time lies in one little word!</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Four lagging winters, and four wanton springs,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">End in a word: such is the breath of kings.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Admirable anticipation! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. This is a striking conclusion of a first +act,—letting the reader into the secret;—having +before impressed us with the dignified and kingly +manners of Richard, yet by well managed anticipations +leading us on to the full gratification of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page167">[pg 167]</span><a name="Pg167" id="Pg167" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +pleasure in our own penetration. In this scene a +new light is thrown on Richard's character. Until +now he has appeared in all the beauty of royalty; +but here, as soon as he is left to himself, the inherent +weakness of his character is immediately +shown. It is a weakness, however, of a peculiar +kind, not arising from want of personal courage, +or any specific defect of faculty, but rather an intellectual +feminineness, which feels a necessity of +ever leaning on the breasts of others, and of reclining +on those who are all the while known to be +inferiors. To this must be attributed as its consequences +all Richard's vices, his tendency to +concealment, and his cunning, the whole operation +of which is directed to the getting rid of present +difficulties. Richard is not meant to be a debauchee; +but we see in him that sophistry which is common +to man, by which we can deceive our own hearts, +and at one and the same time apologize for, and +yet commit, the error. Shakespeare has represented +this character in a very peculiar manner. +He has not made him amiable with counterbalancing +faults; but has openly and broadly drawn those +faults without reserve, relying on Richard's disproportionate +sufferings and gradually emergent +good qualities for our sympathy; and this was +possible, because his faults are not positive vices, +but spring entirely from defect of character. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> Can sick men play so nicely +with their names?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Yes! on a death-bed there is a feeling which +may make all things appear but as puns and equivocations. +And a passion there is that carries off +its own excess by plays on words as naturally, and, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page168">[pg 168]</span><a name="Pg168" id="Pg168" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +therefore, as appropriately to drama, as by gesticulations, +looks, or tones. This belongs to human +nature as such, independently of associations and +habits from any particular rank of life or mode of +employment; and in this consists Shakespeare's +vulgarisms, as in Macbeth's— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is (to equivocate on Dante's words) in truth +the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">nobile volgare eloquenza</span></span>. Indeed it is profoundly +true that there is a natural, an almost irresistible, +tendency in the mind, when immersed in one +strong feeling, to connect that feeling with every +sight and object around it; especially if there be +opposition, and the words addressed to it are in any +way repugnant to the feeling itself, as here in the +instance of Richard's unkind language:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Misery makes sport to mock itself.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +No doubt, something of Shakespeare's punning +must be attributed to his age, in which direct and +formal combats of wit were a favourite pastime of +the courtly and accomplished. It was an age more +favourable, upon the whole, to vigour of intellect +than the present, in which a dread of being thought +pedantic dispirits and flattens the energies of original +minds. But independently of this, I have no +hesitation in saying that a pun, if it be congruous +with the feeling of the scene, is not only allowable +in the dramatic dialogue, but oftentimes one of the +most effectual intensives of passion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> Right; you +say true, as Hereford's love, so his;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The depth of this compared with the first scene:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“How high a pitch,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page169">[pg 169]</span><a name="Pg169" id="Pg169" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is scarcely anything in Shakespeare in its +degree, more admirably drawn than York's character; +his religious loyalty struggling with a deep +grief and indignation at the king's follies; his adherence +to his word and faith, once given in spite +of all, even the most natural, feelings. You see in +him the weakness of old age, and the overwhelmingness +of circumstances, for a time surmounting +his sense of duty,—the junction of both exhibited +in his boldness in words and feebleness in immediate +act; and then again his effort to retrieve himself +in abstract loyalty, even at the heavy price of +the loss of his son. This species of accidental and +adventitious weakness is brought into parallel with +Richard's continually increasing energy of thought, +and as constantly diminishing power of acting;—and +thus it is Richard that breathes a harmony and +a relation into all the characters of the play. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Queen.</span></span> To please the king +I did; to please myself</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I cannot do it; yet I know no cause</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As my sweet Richard: yet again, methinks,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Some unborn sorrow, ripe in sorrow's womb,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Is coming toward me; and my inward soul</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With nothing trembles: at something it grieves,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">More than with parting from my lord the king.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is clear that Shakespeare never meant to represent +Richard as a vulgar debauchee, but a man +with a wantonness of spirit in external show, a +feminine <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">friendism</span></span>, an intensity of woman-like love +of those immediately about him, and a mistaking of +the delight of being loved by him for a love of him. +And mark in this scene Shakespeare's gentleness in +touching the tender superstitions, the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">terræ incognitæ</span></span> +of presentiments, in the human mind; and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page170">[pg 170]</span><a name="Pg170" id="Pg170" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +how sharp a line of distinction he commonly draws +between these obscure forecastings of general experience +in each individual, and the vulgar errors of +mere tradition. Indeed, it may be taken once for +all as the truth, that Shakespeare, in the absolute +universality of his genius, always reverences whatever +arises out of our moral nature; he never profanes +his muse with a contemptuous reasoning away +of the genuine and general, however unaccountable, +feelings of mankind. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The amiable part of Richard's character is +brought full upon us by his queen's few words— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 6.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“So sweet a guest</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">As my sweet Richard:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and Shakespeare has carefully shown in him an +intense love of his country, well-knowing how that +feeling would, in a pure historic drama, redeem him +in the hearts of the audience. Yet even in this +love there is something feminine and personal:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,—</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As a long parted mother with her child</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And do thee favour with my royal hands.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +With this is combined a constant overflow of emotions +from a total incapability of controlling them, +and thence a waste of that energy, which should +have been reserved for actions, in the passion and +effort of mere resolves and menaces. The consequence +is moral exhaustion, and rapid alternations +of unmanly despair and ungrounded hope,—every +feeling being abandoned for its direct opposite upon +the pressure of external accident. And yet when +Richard's inward weakness appears to seek refuge +in his despair, and his exhaustion counterfeits repose, +the old habit of kingliness, the effect of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page171">[pg 171]</span><a name="Pg171" id="Pg171" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +flatterers from his infancy, is ever and anon producing +in him a sort of wordy courage which only +serves to betray more clearly his internal impotence. +The second and third scenes of the third +act combine and illustrate all this:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Aumerle.</span></span> He means, +my lord, that we are too remiss;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Grows strong and great, in substance, and in friends.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That when the searching eye of heaven is hid</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Behind the globe, that lights the lower world,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">In murders and in outrage, bloody here;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But when, from under this terrestrial ball,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And darts his light through every guilty hole,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The cloke of night being pluckt from off their backs,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, &c.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Aumerle.</span></span> Where is the Duke my father with his power?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> No matter where; of comfort no man speak:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, &c.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Aumerle.</span></span> My father hath a power, enquire of him;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And learn to make a body of a limb.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> Thou chid'st me well: proud Bolingbroke, I come</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To change blows with thee for our day of doom.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">This ague-fit of fear is over-blown;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">An easy task it is to win our own.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Scroop.</span></span> Your uncle York hath join'd +with Bolingbroke.—</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> Thou hast said enough,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of that sweet way I was in to despair!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">What say you now? what comfort have we now?</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That bids me be of comfort any more.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 3. Bolingbroke's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Noble lord,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page172">[pg 172]</span><a name="Pg172" id="Pg172" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Observe the fine struggle of a haughty sense of +power and ambition in Bolingbroke with the necessity +for dissimulation. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. See here the skill and judgment of +our poet in giving reality and individual life, by the +introduction of accidents in his historic plays, and +thereby making them dramas, and not histories. +How beautiful an islet of repose—a melancholy +repose, indeed—is this scene with the Gardener and +his Servant. And how truly affecting and realising +is the incident of the very horse Barbary, in the +scene with the Groom in the last act!— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Groom.</span></span> I was a poor groom of +thy stable, King,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">When thou wert King; who, travelling towards York,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With much ado, at length have gotten leave</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To look upon my sometimes master's face.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">O, how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">In London streets, that coronation day,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That horse, that thou so often hast bestrid;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That horse, that I so carefully have dress'd!</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">K. Rich.</span></span> Rode he on Barbary?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Bolingbroke's character, in general, is an instance +how Shakespeare makes one play introductory to +another; for it is evidently a preparation for Henry +IV., as Gloster in the third part of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry VI.</span></span> is +for Richard III. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I would once more remark upon the exalted idea +of the only true loyalty developed in this noble and +impressive play. We have neither the rants of +Beaumont and Fletcher, nor the sneers of Massinger;—the +vast importance of the personal character +of the sovereign is distinctly enounced, whilst, at +the same time, the genuine sanctity which surrounds +him is attributed to, and grounded on, the position +in which he stands as the convergence and exponent +of the life and power of the state. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page173">[pg 173]</span><a name="Pg173" id="Pg173" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The great end of the body politic appears to be +to humanise, and assist in the progressiveness of, +the animal man;—but the problem is so complicated +with contingencies as to render it nearly impossible +to lay down rules for the formation of a state. And +should we be able to form a system of government, +which should so balance its different powers as to +form a check upon each, and so continually remedy +and correct itself, it would, nevertheless, defeat its +own aim;—for man is destined to be guided by +higher principles, by universal views, which can +never be fulfilled in this state of existence,—by a +spirit of progressiveness which can never be accomplished, +for then it would cease to be. Plato's +Republic is like Bunyan's Town of Man-Soul,—a +description of an individual, all of whose faculties +are in their proper subordination and inter-dependence; +and this it is assumed may be the prototype +of the state as one great individual. But there is +this sophism in it, that it is forgotten that the +human faculties, indeed, are parts and not separate +things; but that you could never get chiefs who +were wholly reason, ministers who were wholly +understanding, soldiers all wrath, labourers all concupiscence, +and so on through the rest. Each of +these partakes of, and interferes with, all the +others. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page175">[pg 175]</span><a name="Pg175" id="Pg175" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc61" id="toc61"></a> +<a name="pdf62" id="pdf62"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Henry IV.—Part I.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. King Henry's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“No more the thirsty entrance of this soil</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A most obscure passage: but I think Theobald's +interpretation right, namely, that +<span class="tei tei-q">“thirsty entrance”</span> means the dry penetrability, or +bibulous drought, of the soil. The obscurity of +this passage is of the Shakespearian sort. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. In this, the first introduction of Falstaff, +observe the consciousness and the intentionality +of his wit, so that when it does not flow of its +own accord, its absence is felt, and an effort visibly +made to recall it. Note also throughout how Falstaff's +pride is gratified in the power of influencing +a prince of the blood, the heir apparent, by means +of it. Hence his dislike to Prince John of Lancaster, +and his mortification when he finds his wit +fail on him:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">P. John.</span></span> Fare you well, +Falstaff: I, in my condition,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Shall better speak of you than you deserve.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Fal.</span></span> I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">dukedom.—Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">not love me;—nor a man cannot make him laugh.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Second Carrier's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“breeds fleas like a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">loach</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Perhaps it is a misprint, or a provincial pronunciation, +for <span class="tei tei-q">“leach,”</span> that is, blood-suckers. Had it +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page176">[pg 176]</span><a name="Pg176" id="Pg176" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +been gnats, instead of fleas, there might have been +some sense, though small probability, in Warburton's +suggestion of the Scottish <span class="tei tei-q">“loch.”</span> Possibly +<span class="tei tei-q">“loach,”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“lutch,”</span> may be some lost word for +dovecote, or poultry-lodge, notorious for breeding +fleas. In Stevens's or my reading, it should properly +be <span class="tei tei-q">“loaches,”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“leeches,”</span> in the plural; except +that I think I have heard anglers speak of +trouts like <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">a</span></span> salmon. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Glend.</span></span> <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Nay</span></em>, if you melt, +then will she run mad.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This <span class="tei tei-q">“nay”</span> so to be dwelt on in speaking, as to +be equivalent to a dissyllable - u, is characteristic +of the solemn Glendower; but the imperfect line +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">She bids you</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Upon the wanton rushes lay you down,”</span> &c.,</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +is one of those fine hair-strokes of exquisite judgment +peculiar to Shakespeare;—thus detaching the +Lady's speech, and giving it the individuality and +entireness of a little poem, while he draws attention +to it. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page177">[pg 177]</span><a name="Pg177" id="Pg177" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc63" id="toc63"></a> +<a name="pdf64" id="pdf64"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Henry IV.—Part II.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 2— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">P. Hen.</span></span> Sup any women with him?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Page.</span></span> None, my lord, but old mistress Quickly, and mistress</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Doll Tear-sheet.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">P. Hen.</span></span> This Doll Tear-sheet should +be some road.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I am sometimes disposed to think that this respectable +young lady's name is a very old corruption +for Tear-street—street-walker, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">terere stratam</span></span> +(<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">viam</span></span>). Does not the Prince's question rather +show this?— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This Doll Tear-street should be some road?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1. King Henry's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 8.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Then, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">happy low, +lie down</span></em>;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I know no argument by which to persuade any +one to be of my opinion, or rather of my feeling; +but yet I cannot help feeling that <span class="tei tei-q">“Happy low-lie-down!”</span> +is either a proverbial expression, or the +burthen of some old song, and means, <span class="tei tei-q">“Happy the +man, who lays himself down on his straw bed or +chaff pallet on the ground or floor!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Shallow's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Rah, tah, tah</span></em>, would 'a say; <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">bounce</span></em>, +would 'a say,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +That Beaumont and Fletcher have more than +once been guilty of sneering at their great master, +cannot, I fear, be denied; but the passage quoted +by Theobald from the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Knight of the Burning Pestle</span></span> +is an imitation. If it be chargeable with any fault, +it is with plagiarism, not with sarcasm. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page179">[pg 179]</span><a name="Pg179" id="Pg179" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc65" id="toc65"></a> +<a name="pdf66" id="pdf66"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Henry V.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 2. Westmoreland's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“They know your <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">grace</span></em> hath cause, +and means, and might;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">So hath your <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">highness</span></em>; never King of England</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Had nobles richer,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Does <span class="tei tei-q">“grace”</span> mean the king's own peculiar +domains and legal revenue, and <span class="tei tei-q">“highness”</span> +his feudal rights in the military service of his +nobles?—I have sometimes thought it possible +that the words <span class="tei tei-q">“grace”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“cause”</span> may have been +transposed in the copying or printing;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“They know your cause hath grace,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What Theobald meant, I cannot guess. To me +his pointing makes the passage still more obscure. +Perhaps the lines ought to be recited dramatically +thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“They know your Grace hath cause, and means, and might:—</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">So <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">hath</span></em> your Highness—never King of England</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Had</span></em> nobles richer,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +He breaks off from the grammar and natural +order from earnestness, and in order to give the +meaning more passionately. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Exeter's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yet that is but a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">crush'd</span></em> necessity.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Perhaps it may be <span class="tei tei-q">“crash”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“crass”</span> from +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">crassus</span></span>, clumsy; or it may be <span class="tei tei-q">“curt,”</span> defective, +imperfect: anything would be better than Warburton's +<span class="tei tei-q">“'scus'd,”</span> which honest Theobald, of course, +adopts. By the by, it seems clear to me that this +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page180">[pg 180]</span><a name="Pg180" id="Pg180" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +speech of Exeter's properly belongs to Canterbury, +and was altered by the actors for convenience. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. King Henry's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“We would not <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">die</span></em> in that man's company</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That fears his fellowship to die with us.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Should it not be <span class="tei tei-q">“live”</span> in the first line? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Const.</span></span> <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">O diable!</span></em></span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Orl.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">O seigneur! le jour +est perdu, tout est perdu!</span></span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Dan.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mort de ma vie!</span></span> +all is confounded, all!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Reproach and everlasting shame</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Sit mocking in our plumes!—<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">O meschante fortune!</span></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Do not run away!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Ludicrous as these introductory scraps of French +appear, so instantly followed by good, nervous +mother-English, yet they are judicious, and produce +the impression which Shakespeare intended,—a +sudden feeling struck at once on the ears, as well +as the eyes, of the audience, that <span class="tei tei-q">“here come the +French, the baffled French braggards!”</span>—And this +will appear still more judicious, when we reflect on +the scanty apparatus of distinguishing dresses in +Shakespeare's tyring-room. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page181">[pg 181]</span><a name="Pg181" id="Pg181" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc67" id="toc67"></a> +<a name="pdf68" id="pdf68"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Henry VI.—Part I.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Bedford's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Comets, importing change of times and states,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And with them scourge the bad revolting stars</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That have consented unto Henry's death!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Henry the fifth, too famous to live long!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read aloud any two or three passages in blank +verse even from Shakespeare's earliest dramas, +as <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Love's Labour's Lost</span></span>, or +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>; and +then read in the same way this speech, with especial +attention to the metre; and if you do not feel the +impossibility of the latter having been written by +Shakespeare, all I dare suggest is, that you may +have ears,—for so has another animal,—but an ear +you cannot have, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">me judice</span></span>. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page183">[pg 183]</span><a name="Pg183" id="Pg183" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc69" id="toc69"></a> +<a name="pdf70" id="pdf70"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Richard III.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This play should be contrasted with <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Richard +II.</span></span> Pride of intellect is the characteristic of +Richard, carried to the extent of even boasting to +his own mind of his villany, whilst others are present +to feed his pride of superiority; as in his first +speech, act ii. sc. 1. Shakespeare here, as in all +his great parts, developes in a tone of sublime +morality the dreadful consequences of placing the +moral, in subordination to the mere intellectual, +being. In Richard there is a predominance of +irony, accompanied with apparently blunt manners +to those immediately about him, but formalised +into a more set hypocrisy towards the people as +represented by their magistrates. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185">[pg 185]</span><a name="Pg185" id="Pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc71" id="toc71"></a> +<a name="pdf72" id="pdf72"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Lear.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Of all Shakespeare's plays <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span> is the most +rapid, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span> the slowest, in +movement. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> +combines length with rapidity,—like the hurricane +and the whirlpool, absorbing while it advances. It +begins as a stormy day in summer, with brightness; +but that brightness is lurid, and anticipates +the tempest. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It was not without forethought, nor is it without +its due significance, that the division of Lear's +kingdom is in the first six lines of the play stated +as a thing already determined in all its particulars, +previously to the trial of professions, as the relative +rewards of which the daughters were to be made to +consider their several portions. The strange, yet +by no means unnatural, mixture of selfishness, +sensibility, and habit of feeling derived from, and +fostered by, the particular rank and usages of the +individual;—the intense desire of being intensely +beloved,—selfish, and yet characteristic of the selfishness +of a loving and kindly nature alone;—the +self-supportless leaning for all pleasure on another's +breast;—the craving after sympathy with a prodigal +disinterestedness, frustrated by its own ostentation, +and the mode and nature of its claims;—the +anxiety, the distrust, the jealousy, which more +or less accompany all selfish affections, and are +amongst the surest contradistinctions of mere fondness +from true love, and which originate Lear's +eager wish to enjoy his daughter's violent professions, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186">[pg 186]</span><a name="Pg186" id="Pg186" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +whilst the inveterate habits of sovereignty +convert the wish into claim and positive right, and +an incompliance with it into crime and treason;—these +facts, these passions, these moral verities, on +which the whole tragedy is founded, are all prepared +for, and will to the retrospect be found +implied, in these first four or five lines of the play. +They let us know that the trial is but a trick; and +that the grossness of the old king's rage is in part +the natural result of a silly trick suddenly and +most unexpectedly baffled and disappointed. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It may here be worthy of notice, that <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> is +the only serious performance of Shakespeare, the +interest and situations of which are derived from +the assumption of a gross improbability; whereas +Beaumont and Fletcher's tragedies are, almost all +of them, founded on some out of the way accident +or exception to the general experience of mankind. +But observe the matchless judgment of our Shakespeare. +First, improbable as the conduct of Lear +is in the first scene, yet it was an old story rooted +in the popular faith,—a thing taken for granted +already, and consequently without any of the effects +of improbability. Secondly, it is merely the canvass +for the characters and passions,—a mere occasion +for,—and not, in the manner of Beaumont and +Fletcher, perpetually recurring as the cause, and +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sine qua non</span></span> of,—the incidents and emotions. Let +the first scene of this play have been lost, and let +it only be understood that a fond father had been +duped by hypocritical professions of love and duty +on the part of two daughters to disinherit the third, +previously, and deservedly, more dear to him;—and +all the rest of the tragedy would retain its +interest undiminished, and be perfectly intelligible. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page187">[pg 187]</span><a name="Pg187" id="Pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The accidental is nowhere the groundwork of the +passions, but that which is catholic, which in all +ages has been, and ever will be, close and native to +the heart of man,—parental anguish from filial +ingratitude, the genuineness of worth, though +coffined in bluntness, and the execrable vileness of +a smooth iniquity. Perhaps I ought to have added +the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Merchant of Venice</span></span>; but here too the same +remarks apply. It was an old tale; and substitute +any other danger than that of the pound of flesh +(the circumstance in which the improbability lies), +yet all the situations and the emotions appertaining +to them remain equally excellent and appropriate. +Whereas take away from the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Mad Lover</span></span> of Beaumont +and Fletcher the fantastic hypothesis of his +engagement to cut out his own heart, and have it +presented to his mistress, and all the main scenes +must go with it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Kotzebue is the German Beaumont and Fletcher, +without their poetic powers, and without their <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">vis +comica</span></span>. But, like them, he always deduces his +situations and passions from marvellous accidents, +and the trick of bringing one part of our moral +nature to counteract another; as our pity for misfortune +and admiration of generosity and courage +to combat our condemnation of guilt as in adultery, +robbery, and other heinous crimes;—and, like +them too, he excels in his mode of telling a story +clearly and interestingly, in a series of dramatic +dialogues. Only the trick of making tragedy-heroes +and heroines out of shopkeepers and barmaids was +too low for the age, and too unpoetic for the genius, +of Beaumont and Fletcher, inferior in every respect +as they are to their great predecessor and contemporary. +How inferior would they have appeared, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page188">[pg 188]</span><a name="Pg188" id="Pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +had not Shakespeare existed for them to imitate;—which +in every play, more or less, they do, and in +their tragedies most glaringly:—and yet—(O +shame! shame!)—they miss no opportunity of +sneering at the divine man, and sub-detracting +from his merits! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +To return to <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>. Having thus in the fewest +words, and in a natural reply to as natural a question,—which +yet answers the secondary purpose of +attracting our attention to the difference or diversity +between the characters of Cornwall and Albany,—provided +the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">prémisses</span></span> and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">data</span></span>, as it were, for our +after insight into the mind and mood of the person, +whose character, passions, and sufferings are the +main subject-matter of the play;—from Lear, the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">persona patiens</span></span> of his drama, Shakespeare passes +without delay to the second in importance, the chief +agent and prime mover, and introduces Edmund to +our acquaintance, preparing us with the same felicity +of judgment, and in the same easy and natural +way, for his character in the seemingly casual communication +of its origin and occasion. From the +first drawing up of the curtain Edmund has stood +before us in the united strength and beauty of +earliest manhood. Our eyes have been questioning +him. Gifted as he is with high advantages of person, +and further endowed by nature with a powerful +intellect and a strong energetic will, even +without any concurrence of circumstances and +accident, pride will necessarily be the sin that most +easily besets him. But Edmund is also the known +and acknowledged son of the princely Gloster: he, +therefore, has both the germ of pride, and the conditions +best fitted to evolve and ripen it into a +predominant feeling. Yet hitherto no reason appears +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page189">[pg 189]</span><a name="Pg189" id="Pg189" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +why it should be other than the not unusual +pride of person, talent, and birth,—a pride auxiliary, +if not akin, to many virtues, and the natural +ally of honourable impulses. But alas! in his own +presence his own father takes shame to himself for +the frank avowal that he is his father,—he has +<span class="tei tei-q">“blushed so often to acknowledge him that he is +now brazed to it!”</span> Edmund hears the circumstances +of his birth spoken of with a most degrading +and licentious levity,—his mother described as a +wanton by her own paramour, and the remembrance +of the animal sting, the low criminal +gratifications connected with her wantonness and +prostituted beauty, assigned as the reason why +<span class="tei tei-q">“the whoreson must be acknowledged!”</span> This, +and the consciousness of its notoriety; the gnawing +conviction that every show of respect is an effort of +courtesy, which recalls, while it represses, a contrary +feeling;—this is the ever trickling flow of +wormwood and gall into the wounds of pride,—the +corrosive <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">virus</span></span> which inoculates pride with a +venom not its own, with envy, hatred, and a lust +for that power which in its blaze of radiance would +hide the dark spots on his disc,—with pangs of +shame personally undeserved, and therefore felt as +wrongs, and with a blind ferment of vindictive +working towards the occasions and causes, especially +towards a brother, whose stainless birth and +lawful honours were the constant remembrancers +of his own debasement, and were ever in the way +to prevent all chance of its being unknown, or +overlooked and forgotten. Add to this, that with +excellent judgment, and provident for the claims of +the moral sense,—for that which, relatively to the +drama, is called poetic justice, and as the fittest +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page190">[pg 190]</span><a name="Pg190" id="Pg190" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +means for reconciling the feelings of the spectators +to the horrors of Gloster's after sufferings,—at +least, of rendering them somewhat less unendurable—(for +I will not disguise my conviction, that +in this one point the tragic in this play has been +urged beyond the outermost mark and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ne plus ultra</span></span> +of the dramatic);—Shakespeare has precluded all +excuse and palliation of the guilt incurred by both +the parents of the base-born Edmund, by Gloster's +confession that he was at the time a married man, +and already blest with a lawful heir of his fortunes. +The mournful alienation of brotherly love, occasioned +by the law of primogeniture in noble families, +or rather by the unnecessary distinctions engrafted +thereon, and this in children of the same stock, is +still almost proverbial on the continent,—especially, +as I know from my own observation, in the south +of Europe,—and appears to have been scarcely less +common in our own island before the Revolution +of 1688, if we may judge from the characters and +sentiments so frequent in our elder comedies. +There is the younger brother, for instance, in +Beaumont and Fletcher's play of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Scornful +Lady</span></span>, on the one side, and Oliver in Shakespeare's +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">As You Like It</span></span>, on the other. Need it be said how +heavy an aggravation, in such a case, the stain +of bastardy must have been, were it only that the +younger brother was liable to hear his own dishonour +and his mother's infamy related by his +father with an excusing shrug of the shoulders, +and in a tone betwixt waggery and shame! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +By the circumstances here enumerated as so +many predisposing causes, Edmund's character +might well be deemed already sufficiently explained; +and our minds prepared for it. But in +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page191">[pg 191]</span><a name="Pg191" id="Pg191" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +this tragedy the story or fable constrained Shakespeare +to introduce wickedness in an outrageous +form in the persons of Regan and Goneril. He +had read nature too heedfully not to know that +courage, intellect, and strength of character are +the most impressive forms of power, and that to +power in itself, without reference to any moral +end, an inevitable admiration and complacency +appertains, whether it be displayed in the conquests +of a Buonaparte or Tamerlane, or in the +foam and the thunder of a cataract. But in the +exhibition of such a character it was of the highest +importance to prevent the guilt from passing into +utter monstrosity,—which again depends on the +presence or absence of causes and temptations +sufficient to account for the wickedness, without +the necessity of recurring to a thorough fiendishness +of nature for its origination. For such are +the appointed relations of intellectual power to +truth, and of truth to goodness, that it becomes +both morally and poetically unsafe to present +what is admirable—what our nature compels us to +admire—in the mind, and what is most detestable +in the heart, as co-existing in the same individual +without any apparent connection, or any modification +of the one by the other. That Shakespeare +has in one instance, that of Iago, approached to +this, and that he has done it successfully, is +perhaps the most astonishing proof of his genius, +and the opulence of its resources. But in the +present tragedy, in which he was compelled to +present a Goneril and a Regan, it was most carefully +to be avoided;—and therefore the only one +conceivable addition to the inauspicious influences +on the preformation of Edmund's character is +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page192">[pg 192]</span><a name="Pg192" id="Pg192" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +given, in the information that all the kindly +counteractions to the mischievous feelings of +shame, which might have been derived from co-domestication +with Edgar and their common +father, had been cut off by his absence from home, +and foreign education from boyhood to the present +time, and a prospect of its continuance, as if to +preclude all risk of his interference with the +father's views for the elder and legitimate son:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cor.</span></span> Nothing my lord.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear.</span></span> Nothing?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cor.</span></span> Nothing.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear.</span></span> Nothing can come of nothing: speak again.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cor.</span></span> Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">According to my bond; nor more, nor less.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is something of disgust at the ruthless +hypocrisy of her sisters, and some little faulty +admixture of pride and sullenness in Cordelia's +<span class="tei tei-q">“Nothing;”</span> and her tone is well contrived, indeed, +to lessen the glaring absurdity of Lear's +conduct, but answers the yet more important purpose +of forcing away the attention from the +nursery-tale, the moment it has served its end, +that of supplying the canvas for the picture. This +is also materially furthered by Kent's opposition, +which displays Lear's moral incapability of resigning +the sovereign power in the very act of disposing +of it. Kent is, perhaps, the nearest to +perfect goodness in all Shakespeare's characters, +and yet the most individualised. There is an +extraordinary charm, in his bluntness, which is +that only of a nobleman, arising from a contempt +of overstrained courtesy, and combined with easy +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page193">[pg 193]</span><a name="Pg193" id="Pg193" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +placability where goodness of heart is apparent. +His passionate affection for, and fidelity to, Lear +act on our feelings in Lear's own favour: virtue +itself seems to be in company with him. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Edmund's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">More composition and fierce quality</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Than doth,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's note upon a quotation from Vanini. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Poor Vanini!—Any one but Warburton would +have thought this precious passage more characteristic +of Mr. Shandy than of atheism. If the +fact really were so (which it is not, but almost the +contrary) I do not see why the most confirmed +theist might not very naturally utter the same +wish. But it is proverbial that the youngest son +in a large family is commonly the man of the +greatest talents in it; and as good an authority as +Vanini has said—<span class="tei tei-q">“incalescere in venerem ardentius, +spei sobolis injuriosum esse.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this speech of Edmund you see, as soon as a +man cannot reconcile himself to reason, how his +conscience flies off by way of appeal to nature, +who is sure upon such occasions never to find +fault, and also how shame sharpens a predisposition +in the heart to evil. For it is a profound +moral, that shame will naturally generate guilt; +the oppressed will be vindictive, like Shylock, and +in the anguish of undeserved ignominy the delusion +secretly springs up of getting over the moral +quality of an action by fixing the mind on the +mere physical act alone. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Edmund's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">This is the excellent foppery of the world! that, when we are +sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour), we make +guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page194">[pg 194]</span><a name="Pg194" id="Pg194" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Thus scorn and misanthropy are often the anticipations +and mouth-pieces of wisdom in the detection +of superstitions. Both individuals and +nations may be free from such prejudices by being +below them, as well as by rising above them. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. The Steward should be placed in +exact antithesis to Kent, as the only character of +utter irredeemable baseness in Shakespeare. Even +in this the judgment and invention of the poet are +very observable;—for what else could the willing +tool of a Goneril be? Not a vice but this of baseness +was left open to him. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. In Lear old age is itself a character,—its +natural imperfections being increased by +life-long habits of receiving a prompt obedience. +Any addition of individuality would have been +unnecessary and painful; for the relations of +others to him, of wondrous fidelity and of frightful +ingratitude, alone sufficiently distinguish him. +Thus Lear becomes the open and ample play-room +of nature's passions. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Knight.</span></span> Since my +young lady's going into France, Sir; the</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">fool hath much pined away.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The Fool is no comic buffoon to make the +groundlings laugh,—no forced condescension of +Shakespeare's genius to the taste of his audience. +Accordingly the poet prepares for his introduction, +which he never does with any of his common +clowns and fools, by bringing him into living connection +with the pathos of the play. He is as +wonderful a creation as Caliban;—his wild babblings, +and inspired idiocy, articulate and gauge +the horrors of the scene. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The monster Goneril prepares what is necessary, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page195">[pg 195]</span><a name="Pg195" id="Pg195" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +while the character of Albany renders a still more +maddening grievance possible—namely, Regan +and Cornwall in perfect sympathy of monstrosity. +Not a sentiment, not an image, which can give +pleasure on its own account is admitted; whenever +these creatures are introduced, and they are +brought forward as little as possible, pure horror +reigns throughout. In this scene and in all the +early speeches of Lear, the one general sentiment +of filial ingratitude prevails as the main-spring of +the feelings;—in this early stage the outward +object causing the pressure on the mind, which is +not yet sufficiently familiarised with the anguish +for the imagination to work upon it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Gon.</span></span> Do you mark that, my lord?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Alb.</span></span> I cannot be so partial, Goneril,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To the great love I bear you.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Gon.</span></span> Pray you content,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Observe the baffled endeavour of Goneril to act +on the fears of Albany, and yet his passiveness, +his <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">inertia</span></em>; he is not convinced, and yet he is +afraid of looking into the thing. Such characters +always yield to those who will take the trouble of +governing them, or for them. Perhaps the influence +of a princess, whose choice of him had +royalised his state, may be some little excuse for +Albany's weakness. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear.</span></span> O let me not be mad, +not mad, sweet heaven!</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Keep me in temper! I would not be mad!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The mind's own anticipation of madness! The +deepest tragic notes are often struck by a half +sense of an impending blow. The Fool's conclusion +of this act by a grotesque prattling seems to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page196">[pg 196]</span><a name="Pg196" id="Pg196" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +indicate the dislocation of feeling that has begun +and is to be continued. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Edmund's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He replied,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Thou unpossessing bastard!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Thus the secret poison in Edmund's own heart +steals forth; and then observe poor Gloster's— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Loyal and <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">natural</span></em> boy!”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +as if praising the crime of Edmund's birth! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Compare Regan's— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“What, did <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">my father's</span></em> godson seek your life?</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">He whom <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">my father</span></em> named?”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +with the unfeminine violence of her— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“All vengeance comes too short,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and yet no reference to the guilt, but only to the +accident, which she uses as an occasion for sneering +at her father. Regan is not, in fact, a greater +monster than Goneril, but she has the power of +casting more venom. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Cornwall's speech:—- +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This is some fellow,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A saucy roughness,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In thus placing these profound general truths +in the mouths of such men as Cornwall, Edmund, +Iago, &c., Shakespeare at once gives them utterance, +and yet shows how indefinite their application +is. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Edgar's assumed madness serves the +great purpose of taking off part of the shock +which would otherwise be caused by the true +madness of Lear, and further displays the profound +difference between the two. In every +attempt at representing madness throughout the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page197">[pg 197]</span><a name="Pg197" id="Pg197" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +whole range of dramatic literature, with the single +exception of Lear, it is mere lightheadedness, as +especially in Otway. In Edgar's ravings Shakespeare +all the while lets you see a fixed purpose, a +practical end in view;—in Lear's, there is only +the brooding of the one anguish, an eddy without +progression. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. Lear's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The king would speak with Cornwall; the dear father</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Would with his daughter speak, &c.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">No, but not yet: may be he is not well,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The strong interest now felt by Lear to try to +find excuses for his daughter is most pathetic. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Lear's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Beloved Regan,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thy sister's naught;—O Regan, she hath tied</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I can scarce speak to thee;—thou'lt not believe</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of how deprav'd a quality—O Regan!</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Reg.</span></span> I pray you, Sir, take patience; I have hope,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">You less know how to value her desert,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Than she to scant her duty.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear.</span></span> Say, how is that?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Nothing is so heart-cutting as a cold unexpected +defence or palliation of a cruelty passionately +complained of, or so expressive of thorough hard-heartedness. +And feel the excessive horror of +Regan's <span class="tei tei-q">“O, Sir, you are old!”</span>—and then her +drawing from that universal object of reverence +and indulgence the very reason for her frightful +conclusion— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Say, you have wrong'd her!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +All Lear's faults increase our pity for him. We +refuse to know them otherwise than as means of +his sufferings, and aggravations of his daughters' +ingratitude. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page198">[pg 198]</span><a name="Pg198" id="Pg198" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Lear's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O, reason not the need: our basest beggars</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Are in the poorest thing superfluous,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Observe that the tranquillity which follows the +first stunning of the blow permits Lear to reason. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 4. O, what a world's convention of +agonies is here! All external nature in a storm, +all moral nature convulsed,—the real madness of +Lear, the feigned madness of Edgar, the babbling +of the Fool, the desperate fidelity of Kent—surely +such a scene was never conceived before or since! +Take it but as a picture for the eye only, it is +more terrific than any which a Michael Angelo, +inspired by a Dante, could have conceived, and +which none but a Michael Angelo could have +executed. Or let it have been uttered to the +blind, the howlings of nature would seem converted +into the voice of conscious humanity. This +scene ends with the first symptoms of positive +derangement; and the intervention of the fifth +scene is particularly judicious,—the interruption +allowing an interval for Lear to appear in full +madness in the sixth scene. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 7. Gloster's blinding. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What can I say of this scene?—There is my +reluctance to think Shakespeare wrong, and yet— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 6. Lear's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Ha! Goneril!—with a white beard!—They flattered me like a +dog; and told me, I had white hairs in my beard, ere the black ones +were there. To say </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Ay</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> and </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">No</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> to every thing +I said!—Ay and +No too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me +once,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The thunder recurs, but still at a greater distance +from our feelings. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page199">[pg 199]</span><a name="Pg199" id="Pg199" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 7. Lear's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Where have I been? Where am I?—Fair daylight?—</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I am mightily abused.—I should even die with pity</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To see another thus,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How beautifully the affecting return of Lear to +reason, and the mild pathos of these speeches prepare +the mind for the last sad, yet sweet, consolation +of the aged sufferer's death! +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page201">[pg 201]</span><a name="Pg201" id="Pg201" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc73" id="toc73"></a> +<a name="pdf74" id="pdf74"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Hamlet.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Hamlet was the play, or rather Hamlet himself +was the character, in the intuition and +exposition of which I first made my turn for philosophical +criticism, and especially for insight into +the genius of Shakespeare, noticed. This happened +first amongst my acquaintances, as Sir George +Beaumont will bear witness; and subsequently, +long before Schlegel had delivered at Vienna the +lectures on Shakespeare, which he afterwards published, +I had given on the same subject eighteen +lectures substantially the same, proceeding from +the very same point of view, and deducing the +same conclusions, so far as I either then agreed, +or now agree, with him. I gave these lectures at +the Royal Institution, before six or seven hundred +auditors of rank and eminence, in the spring of the +same year, in which Sir Humphrey Davy, a fellow-lecturer, +made his great revolutionary discoveries +in chemistry. Even in detail the coincidence of +Schlegel with my lectures was so extraordinary, +that all who at a later period heard the same words, +taken by me from my notes of the lectures at the +Royal Institution, concluded a borrowing on my +part from Schlegel. Mr. Hazlitt, whose hatred of +me is in such an inverse ratio to my zealous kindness +towards him, as to be defended by his warmest +admirer, Charles Lamb—(who, God bless him! +besides his characteristic obstinacy of adherence to +old friends, as long at least as they are at all down +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page202">[pg 202]</span><a name="Pg202" id="Pg202" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +in the world, is linked as by a charm to Hazlitt's +conversation)—only as <span class="tei tei-q">“frantic;”</span>—Mr. Hazlitt, I +say, himself replied to an assertion of my plagiarism +from Schlegel in these words;—<span class="tei tei-q">“That is a lie; +for I myself heard the very same character of +Hamlet from Coleridge before he went to Germany, +and when he had neither read nor could +read a page of German!”</span> Now Hazlitt was on a +visit to me at my cottage at Nether Stowey, Somerset, +in the summer of the year 1798, in the September +of which year I first was out of sight of the +shores of Great Britain.—Recorded by me, S. T. +Coleridge, 7th January, 1819. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The seeming inconsistencies in the conduct and +character of Hamlet have long exercised the conjectural +ingenuity of critics; and, as we are always +loth to suppose that the cause of defective apprehension +is in ourselves, the mystery has been too +commonly explained by the very easy process of +setting it down as in fact inexplicable, and by resolving +the phenomenon into a misgrowth or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">lusus</span></span> +of the capricious and irregular genius of Shakespeare. +The shallow and stupid arrogance of these +vulgar and indolent decisions I would fain do my +best to expose. I believe the character of Hamlet +may be traced to Shakespeare's deep and accurate +science in mental philosophy. Indeed, that this +character must have some connection with the +common fundamental laws of our nature may be +assumed from the fact, that Hamlet has been the +darling of every country in which the literature of +England has been fostered. In order to understand +him, it is essential that we should reflect on +the constitution of our own minds. Man is distinguished +from the brute animals in proportion as +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page203">[pg 203]</span><a name="Pg203" id="Pg203" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy +processes of the mind, a balance is constantly maintained +between the impressions from outward objects +and the inward operations of the intellect;—for +if there be an overbalance in the contemplative +faculty, man thereby becomes the creature of mere +meditation, and loses his natural power of action. +Now one of Shakespeare's modes of creating characters +is, to conceive any one intellectual or moral +faculty in morbid excess, and then to place himself, +Shakespeare, thus mutilated or diseased, under given +circumstances. In Hamlet he seems to have wished +to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance +between our attention to the objects of our senses, +and our meditation on the workings of our minds,—an +<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">equilibrium</span></em> between the real and the imaginary +worlds. In Hamlet this balance is disturbed: his +thoughts, and the images of his fancy, are far more +vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, +instantly passing through the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">medium</span></em> of +his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form +and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we +see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, +and a proportionate aversion to real action, +consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and +accompanying qualities. This character Shakespeare +places in circumstances, under which it is +obliged to act on the spur of the moment:—Hamlet +is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates +from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, +and loses the power of action in the energy of +resolve. Thus it is that this tragedy presents a +direct contrast to that of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>; the one proceeds +with the utmost slowness, the other with a +crowded and breathless rapidity. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page204">[pg 204]</span><a name="Pg204" id="Pg204" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The effect of this overbalance of the imaginative +power is beautifully illustrated in the everlasting +broodings and superfluous activities of Hamlet's +mind, which, unseated from its healthy relation, is +constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted +from the world without,—giving substance +to shadows, and throwing a mist over all commonplace +actualities. It is the nature of thought to be +indefinite;—definiteness belongs to external imagery +alone. Hence it is that the sense of sublimity +arises, not from the sight of an outward object, +but from the beholder's reflection upon it;—not +from the sensuous impression, but from the imaginative +reflex. Few have seen a celebrated waterfall +without feeling something akin to disappointment: +it is only subsequently that the image comes back +full into the mind, and brings with it a train of +grand or beautiful associations. Hamlet feels this; +his senses are in a state of trance, and he looks +upon external things as hieroglyphics. His soliloquy— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O! that this too too solid flesh would melt,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +springs from that craving after the indefinite—for +that which is not—which most easily besets men +of genius; and the self-delusion common to this +temper of mind is finely exemplified in the character +which Hamlet gives of himself;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“It cannot be</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To make oppression bitter.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +He mistakes the seeing his chains for the breaking +them, delays action till action is of no use, and dies +the victim of mere circumstance and accident. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is a great significancy in the names of +Shakespeare's plays. In the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Twelfth Night</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Midsummer +</span><span class="tei tei-pb" id="page205">[pg 205]</span><a name="Pg205" id="Pg205" class="tei tei-anchor"></a><span style="font-style: italic"> +Night's Dream</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">As You Like It</span></span>, and +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Winter's Tale</span></span>, the total effect is produced by a +co-ordination of the characters as in a wreath of +flowers. But in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Coriolanus</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and Juliet</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span>, &c., +the effect arises from the subordination +of all to one, either as the prominent +person, or the principal object. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cymbeline</span></span> is the +only exception; and even that has its advantages +in preparing the audience for the chaos of time, +place, and costume, by throwing the date back +into a fabulous king's reign. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But as of more importance, so more striking, is +the judgment displayed by our truly dramatic poet, +as well as poet of the drama, in the management +of his first scenes. With the single exception of +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cymbeline</span></span>, they either place before us at one glance +both the past and the future in some effect, which +implies the continuance and full agency of its cause, +as in the feuds and party-spirit of the servants of +the two houses in the first scene of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Romeo and +Juliet</span></span>; or in the degrading passion for shows and +public spectacles, and the overwhelming attachment +for the newest successful war-chief in the +Roman people, already become a populace, contrasted +with the jealousy of the nobles in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Julius +Cæsar</span></span>;—or they at once commence the action so +as to excite a curiosity for the explanation in the +following scenes, as in the storm of wind and waves, +and the boatswain in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Tempest</span></span>, instead of anticipating +our curiosity, as in most other first scenes, +and in too many other first acts;—or they act, by +contrast of diction suited to the characters, at once +to heighten the effect, and yet to give a naturalness +to the language and rhythm of the principal personages, +either as that of Prospero and Miranda +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page206">[pg 206]</span><a name="Pg206" id="Pg206" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +by the appropriate lowness of the style, or as in +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">King John</span></span>, by the equally appropriate stateliness +of official harangues or narratives, so that the after +blank verse seems to belong to the rank and quality +of the speakers, and not to the poet;—or they +strike at once the key-note, and give the predominant +spirit of the play, as in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Twelfth Night</span></span> and +in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>;—or finally, the first scene comprises +all these advantages at once, as in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Compare the easy language of common life, in +which this drama commences, with the direful music +and wild wayward rhythm and abrupt lyrics of +the opening of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>. The tone is quite familiar;—there +is no poetic description of night, no elaborate +information conveyed by one speaker to another +of what both had immediately before their senses—(such +as the first distich in Addison's <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Cato</span></span>, which +is a translation into poetry of <span class="tei tei-q">“Past four o'clock +and a dark morning!”</span>);—and yet nothing bordering +on the comic on the one hand, nor any striving +of the intellect on the other. It is precisely the +language of sensation among men who feared no +charge of effeminacy for feeling what they had no +want of resolution to bear. Yet the armour, the +dead silence, the watchfulness that first interrupts +it, the welcome relief of the guard, the cold, the +broken expressions of compelled attention to bodily +feelings still under control—all excellently accord +with, and prepare for, the after gradual rise into +tragedy;—but, above all, into a tragedy, the interest +of which is as eminently <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ad et apud intra</span></span>, as +that of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span> is directly <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ad extra</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In all the best attested stories of ghosts and +visions, as in that of Brutus, of Archbishop Cranmer, +that of Benvenuto Cellini recorded by himself, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page207">[pg 207]</span><a name="Pg207" id="Pg207" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +and the vision of Galileo communicated by him to +his favourite pupil Torricelli, the ghost-seers were +in a state of cold or chilling damp from without, +and of anxiety inwardly. It has been with all of +them as with Francisco on his guard,—alone, in +the depth and silence of the night; <span class="tei tei-q">“'twas bitter +cold, and they were sick at heart, and <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">not a mouse +stirring</span></em>.”</span> The attention to minute sounds,—naturally +associated with the recollection of minute +objects, and the more familiar and trifling, the more +impressive from the unusualness of their producing +any impression at all—gives a philosophic pertinency +to this last image; but it has likewise its +dramatic use and purpose. For its commonness in +ordinary conversation tends to produce the sense of +reality, and at once hides the poet, and yet approximates +the reader or spectator to that state in which +the highest poetry will appear, and in its component +parts, though not in the whole composition, really +is, the language of nature. If I should not speak +it, I feel that I should be thinking it;—the voice +only is the poet's,—the words are my own. That +Shakespeare meant to put an effect in the actor's +power in the very first words—<span class="tei tei-q">“Who's there?”</span>—is +evident from the impatience expressed by the +startled Francisco in the words that follow—<span class="tei tei-q">“Nay, +answer me: stand and unfold yourself.”</span> A brave +man is never so peremptory, as when he fears that +he is afraid. Observe the gradual transition from +the silence and the still recent habit of listening in +Francisco's—<span class="tei tei-q">“I think I hear them”</span>—to the more +cheerful call out, which a good actor would observe, +in the—<span class="tei tei-q">“Stand ho! Who is there?”</span> Bernardo's +inquiry after Horatio, and the repetition of his +name and in his own presence indicate a respect or +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page208">[pg 208]</span><a name="Pg208" id="Pg208" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +an eagerness that implies him as one of the persons +who are in the foreground; and the scepticism +attributed to him,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And will not let belief take hold of him,”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +prepares us for Hamlet's after eulogy on him as +one whose blood and judgment were happily commingled. +The actor should also be careful to distinguish +the expectation and gladness of Bernardo's +<span class="tei tei-q">“Welcome, Horatio!”</span> from the mere courtesy of +his <span class="tei tei-q">“Welcome, good Marcellus!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Now observe the admirable indefiniteness of the +first opening out of the occasion of all this anxiety. +The preparation informative of the audience is just +as much as was precisely necessary, and no more;—it +begins with the uncertainty appertaining to +a question:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mar.</span></span> What, has <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">this thing</span></em> +appear'd again to-night?”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Even the word <span class="tei tei-q">“again”</span> has its <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">credibilising</span></em> effect. +Then Horatio, the representative of the ignorance +of the audience, not himself, but by Marcellus to +Bernardo, anticipates the common solution—<span class="tei tei-q">“'tis +but our fantasy!”</span> upon which Marcellus rises +into— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This dreaded sight, twice seen of us”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +which immediately afterwards becomes <span class="tei tei-q">“this apparition,”</span> +and that, too, an intelligent spirit—that +is, to be spoken to! Then comes the confirmation +of Horatio's disbelief;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Tush! tush! 'twill not appear!”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and the silence, with which the scene opened, is +again restored in the shivering feeling of Horatio +sitting down, at such a time, and with the two +eye-witnesses, to hear a story of a ghost, and that, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page209">[pg 209]</span><a name="Pg209" id="Pg209" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +too, of a ghost which had appeared twice before at +the very same hour. In the deep feeling which +Bernardo has of the solemn nature of what he is +about to relate, he makes an effort to master his +own imaginative terrors by an elevation of style,—itself +a continuation of the effort,—and by turning +off from the apparition, as from something +which would force him too deeply into himself, to +the outward objects, the realities of nature, which +had accompanied it:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ber.</span></span> Last night of all,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">When yon same star, that's westward from the pole</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Had made his course to illume that part of heaven</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The bell then beating one.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This passage seems to contradict the critical +law that what is told, makes a faint impression +compared with what is beholden; for it does +indeed convey to the mind more than the eye can +see; whilst the interruption of the narrative at the +very moment when we are most intensely listening +for the sequel, and have our thoughts diverted +from the dreaded sight in expectation of the +desired, yet almost dreaded, tale—this gives all +the suddenness and surprise of the original appearance:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mar.</span></span> Peace, break thee off; +look, where it comes again!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Note the judgment displayed in having the two +persons present, who, as having seen the Ghost +before, are naturally eager in confirming their +former opinions,—whilst the sceptic is silent, and +after having been twice addressed by his friends, +answers with two hasty syllables—<span class="tei tei-q">“Most like,”</span>—and +a confession of horror:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“It harrows me with fear and wonder.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O heaven! words are wasted on those who feel, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page210">[pg 210]</span><a name="Pg210" id="Pg210" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +and to those who do not feel the exquisite judgment +of Shakespeare in this scene, what can be +said? Hume himself could not but have had +faith in this Ghost dramatically, let his anti-ghostism +have been as strong as Sampson against +other ghosts less powerfully raised. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mar.</span></span> Good now, sit down, and tell +me, he that knows,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Why this same strict and most observant watch,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How delightfully natural is the transition, to the +retrospective narrative! And observe, upon the +Ghost's reappearance, how much Horatio's courage +is increased by having translated the late individual +spectator into general thought and past +experience,—and the sympathy of Marcellus and +Bernardo with his patriotic surmises in daring to +strike at the Ghost; whilst in a moment, upon its +vanishing, the former solemn awe-stricken feeling +returns upon them:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“We do it wrong, being so majestical,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To offer it the show of violence.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Horatio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I have heard,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Awake the god of day,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +No Addison could be more careful to be poetical +in diction than Shakespeare in providing the +grounds and sources of its propriety. But how to +elevate a thing almost mean by its familiarity, +young poets may learn in this treatment of the +cock-crow. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Horatio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And, by my advice,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Let us impart what we have seen to-night</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page211">[pg 211]</span><a name="Pg211" id="Pg211" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Note the inobtrusive and yet fully adequate mode +of introducing the main character, <span class="tei tei-q">“young +Hamlet,”</span> upon whom it transferred all the interest +excited for the acts and concerns of the king his +father. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. The audience are now relieved by a +change of scene to the royal court, in order that +Hamlet may not have to take up the leavings of +exhaustion. In the king's speech, observe the set +and pedantically antithetic form of the sentences +when touching that which galled the heels of conscience,—the +strain of undignified rhetoric,—and +yet in what follows concerning the public weal, a +certain appropriate majesty. Indeed was he not a +royal brother?— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> King's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Thus with great art Shakespeare introduces a most +important, but still subordinate character first, +Laertes, who is yet thus graciously treated in consequence +of the assistance given to the election +of the late king's brother instead of his son by +Polonius. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> A little more than kin, +and less than kind.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">King.</span></span> How is it that the clouds still hang on you?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Not so, my lord, I +am too much i' the sun.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Hamlet opens his mouth with a playing on +words, the complete absence of which throughout +characterises Macbeth. This playing on words +may be attributed to many causes or motives, as +either to an exuberant activity of mind, as in the +higher comedy of Shakespeare generally;—or to an +imitation of it as a mere fashion, as if it were said—<span class="tei tei-q">“Is +not this better than groaning?”</span>—or to a contemptuous +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page212">[pg 212]</span><a name="Pg212" id="Pg212" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +exultation in minds vulgarised and overset +by their success, as in the poetic instance of +Milton's Devils in the battle;—or it is the language +of resentment, as is familiar to every one who has +witnessed the quarrels of the lower orders, where +there is invariably a profusion of punning invective, +whence, perhaps, nicknames have in a considerable +degree sprung up;—or it is the language +of suppressed passion, and especially of a hardly +smothered personal dislike. The first and last of +these combine in Hamlet's case; and I have little +doubt that Farmer is right in supposing the equivocation +carried on in the expression <span class="tei tei-q">“too much i' +the sun,”</span> or son. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Ay, madam, it is common.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Here observe Hamlet's delicacy to his mother, and +how the suppression prepares him for the overflow +in the next speech, in which his character is more +developed by bringing forward his aversion to externals, +and which betrays his habit of brooding +over the world within him, coupled with a prodigality +of beautiful words, which are the half embodyings +of thought, and are more than thought, +and have an outness, a reality <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">sui generis</span></span>, and yet +retain their correspondence and shadowy affinity +to the images and movements within. Note also +Hamlet's silence to the long speech of the king +which follows, and his respectful, but general, +answer to his mother. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Hamlet's first soliloquy:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tædium vitæ</span></span> is a common oppression on +minds cast in the Hamlet mould, and is caused by +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page213">[pg 213]</span><a name="Pg213" id="Pg213" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +disproportionate mental exertion, which necessitates +exhaustion of bodily feeling. Where there +is a just coincidence of external and internal +action, pleasure is always the result; but where +the former is deficient, and the mind's appetency +of the ideal is unchecked, realities will seem cold +and unmoving. In such cases, passion combines +itself with the indefinite alone. In this mood of +his mind the relation of the appearance of his +father's spirit in arms is made all at once to +Hamlet:—it is—Horatio's speech in particular—a +perfect model of the true style of dramatic narrative;—the +purest poetry, and yet in the most +natural language, equally remote from the ink-horn +and the plough. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. This scene must be regarded as one +of Shakespeare's lyric movements in the play, and +the skill with which it is interwoven with the +dramatic parts is peculiarly an excellence of our +poet. You experience the sensation of a pause +without the sense of a stop. You will observe in +Ophelia's short and general answer to the long +speech of Laertes the natural carelessness of innocence, +which cannot think such a code of cautions +and prudences necessary to its own preservation. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Polonius (in Stockdale's +edition):— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase),</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I suspect this <span class="tei tei-q">“wronging”</span> is here used much in +the same sense as <span class="tei tei-q">“wringing”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“wrenching,”</span> +and that the parenthesis should be extended to +<span class="tei tei-q">“thus.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Polonius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“How prodigal the soul</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Lends the tongue vows:—these blazes, daughter,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page214">[pg 214]</span><a name="Pg214" id="Pg214" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A spondee has, I doubt not, dropped out of the +text. Either insert <span class="tei tei-q">“Go to”</span> after <span class="tei tei-q">“vows”</span>;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Lends the tongue vows: Go to, these blazes, daughter”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +or read— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Lends the tongue vows:—These blazes, daughter, mark you”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Shakespeare never introduces a catalectic line +without intending an equivalent to the foot omitted +in the pauses, or the dwelling emphasis, or the +diffused retardation. I do not, however, deny that +a good actor might, by employing the last mentioned +means—namely, the retardation, or solemn +knowing drawl—supply the missing spondee with +good effect. But I do not believe that in this or +any other of the foregoing speeches of Polonius, +Shakespeare meant to bring out the senility or +weakness of that personage's mind. In the great +ever-recurring dangers and duties of life, where +to distinguish the fit objects for the application of +the maxims collected by the experience of a long +life, requires no fineness of tact, as in the admonitions +to his son and daughter, Polonius is uniformly +made respectable. But if an actor were +even capable of catching these shades in the character, +the pit and the gallery would be malcontent +at their exhibition. It is to Hamlet that Polonius +is, and is meant to be, contemptible, because in +inwardness and uncontrollable activity of movement, +Hamlet's mind is the logical contrary to +that of Polonius; and besides, as I have observed +before, Hamlet dislikes the man as false to his true +allegiance in the matter of the succession to the +crown. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. The unimportant conversation with +which this scene opens is a proof of Shakespeare's +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page215">[pg 215]</span><a name="Pg215" id="Pg215" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +minute knowledge of human nature. It is a well +established fact, that on the brink of any serious +enterprise, or event of moment, men almost invariably +endeavour to elude the pressure of their +own thoughts by turning aside to trivial objects +and familiar circumstances: thus this dialogue on +the platform begins with remarks on the coldness +of the air, and inquiries, obliquely connected, +indeed, with the expected hour of the visitation, +but thrown out in a seeming vacuity of topics, as +to the striking of the clock and so forth. The +same desire to escape from the impending thought +is carried on in Hamlet's account of, and moralizing +on, the Danish custom of wassailing: he runs off +from the particular to the universal, and, in his +repugnance to personal and individual concerns, +escapes, as it were, from himself in generalisations, +and smothers the impatience and uneasy feelings +of the moment in abstract reasoning. Besides +this, another purpose is answered;—for by thus +entangling the attention of the audience in the +nice distinctions and parenthetical sentences of +this speech of Hamlet's, Shakespeare takes them +completely by surprise on the appearance of the +Ghost, which comes upon them in all the suddenness +of its visionary character. Indeed, no modern +writer would have dared, like Shakespeare, to have +preceded this last visitation by two distinct appearances,—or +could have contrived that the third +should rise upon the former two in impressiveness +and solemnity of interest. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But in addition to all the other excellences of +Hamlet's speech concerning the wassail-music—so +finely revealing the predominant idealism, the +ratiocinative meditativeness, of his character—it +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page216">[pg 216]</span><a name="Pg216" id="Pg216" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +has the advantage of giving nature and probability +to the impassioned continuity of the speech +instantly directed to the Ghost. The <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">momentum</span></em> +had been given to his mental activity; the full +current of the thoughts and words had set in, and +the very forgetfulness, in the fervour of his argumentation, +of the purpose for which he was there, +aided in preventing the appearance from benumbing +the mind. Consequently, it acted as a new +impulse,—a sudden stroke which increased the +velocity of the body already in motion, whilst it +altered the direction. The co-presence of Horatio, +Marcellus, and Bernardo is most judiciously contrived; +for it renders the courage of Hamlet, and +his impetuous eloquence, perfectly intelligible. +The knowledge,—the unthought of consciousness,—the +sensation of human auditors—of flesh and +blood sympathists—acts as a support and a stimulation +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">a tergo</span></span>, while the front of the mind, the +whole consciousness of the speaker, is filled, yea, +absorbed, by the apparition. Add too, that the +apparition itself has, by its previous appearances, +been brought nearer to a thing of this world. +This accrescence of objectivity in a Ghost that yet +retains all its ghostly attributes and fearful subjectivity, +is truly wonderful. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5. Hamlet's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And shall I couple hell?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I remember nothing equal to this burst, unless +it be the first speech of Prometheus in the Greek +drama, after the exit of Vulcan and the two +Afrites. But Shakespeare alone could have produced +the vow of Hamlet to make his memory a +blank of all maxims and generalised truths, that +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page217">[pg 217]</span><a name="Pg217" id="Pg217" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<span class="tei tei-q">“observation had copied there,”</span>—followed immediately +by the speaker noting down the generalised +fact,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mar.</span></span> Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Hillo, ho, ho, boy! +come bird, come,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This part of the scene, after Hamlet's interview +with the Ghost, has been charged with an improbable +eccentricity. But the truth is, that after the +mind has been stretched beyond its usual pitch +and tone, it must either sink into exhaustion and +inanity, or seek relief by change. It is thus well +known, that persons conversant in deeds of cruelty +contrive to escape from conscience by connecting +something of the ludicrous with them, and by inventing +grotesque terms, and a certain technical +phraseology, to disguise the horror of their practices. +Indeed, paradoxical as it may appear, the +terrible by a law of the human mind always +touches on the verge of the ludicrous. Both arise +from the perception of something out of the +common order of things—something, in fact, out +of its place; and if from this we can abstract +danger, the uncommonness will alone remain, and +the sense of the ridiculous be excited. The close +alliance of these opposites—they are not contraries—appears +from the circumstance, that laughter is +equally the expression of extreme anguish and +horror as of joy: as there are tears of sorrow and +tears of joy, so is there a laugh of terror and a +laugh of merriment. These complex causes will +naturally have produced in Hamlet the disposition +to escape from his own feelings of the overwhelming +and supernatural by a wild transition +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page218">[pg 218]</span><a name="Pg218" id="Pg218" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +to the ludicrous,—a sort of cunning bravado, +bordering on the flights of delirium. For you +may, perhaps, observe that Hamlet's wildness is +but half false; he plays that subtle trick of pretending +to act only when he is very near really +being what he acts. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The subterraneous speeches of the Ghost are +hardly defensible;—but I would call your attention +to the characteristic difference between this Ghost, +as a superstition connected with the most mysterious +truths of revealed religion,—and Shakespeare's +consequent reverence in his treatment of +it,—and the foul earthly witcheries and wild +language in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Polonius and Reynaldo. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In all things dependent on, or rather made up +of, fine address, the manner is no more or otherwise +rememberable than the light notions, steps, and +gestures of youth and health. But this is almost +everything:—no wonder, therefore, if that which +can be put down by rule in the memory should +appear to us as mere poring, maudlin, cunning,—slyness +blinking through the watery eye of superannuation. +So in this admirable scene, Polonius, +who is throughout the skeleton of his own former +skill and statecraft, hunts the trail of policy at a +dead scent, supplied by the weak fever-smell in his +own nostrils. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Speech of Polonius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“My liege, and madam, to expostulate,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's note. +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Then as to the jingles, and play on words, let us but look into +the sermons of Dr. Donne (the wittiest man of that age), and we +shall find them full of this vein.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have, and that most carefully, read Dr. Donne's +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page219">[pg 219]</span><a name="Pg219" id="Pg219" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +sermons, and find none of these jingles. The great +art of an orator—to make whatever he talks of +appear of importance—this, indeed, Donne has +effected with consummate skill. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Excellent well;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">You are a fishmonger.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +That is, you are sent to fish out this secret. This +is Hamlet's own meaning. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> For if the sun breed maggots in +a dead dog,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Being a god, kissing carrion.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +These purposely obscure lines, I rather think, refer +to some thought in Hamlet's mind, contrasting the +lovely daughter with such a tedious old fool, her +father, as he, Hamlet, represents Polonius to himself:—<span class="tei tei-q">“Why, +fool as he is, he is some degrees in +rank above a dead dog's carcase; and if the sun, +being a god that kisses carrion, can raise life out of +a dead dog,—why may not good fortune, that +favours fools, have raised a lovely girl out of this +dead-alive old fool?”</span> Warburton is often led +astray, in his interpretations, by his attention to +general positions without the due Shakespearian +reference to what is probably passing in the mind +of his speaker, characteristic, and expository of his +particular character and present mood. The subsequent +passage,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O Jephthah, judge of Israel! what a treasure hadst thou!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +is confirmatory of my view of these lines. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> You cannot, Sir, take from me any thing +that I will</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">more willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">my life.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This repetition strikes me as most admirable. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page220">[pg 220]</span><a name="Pg220" id="Pg220" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Then are our beggars, bodies; +and our monarchs, and</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">out-stretched heroes, the beggars' shadows?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I do not understand this; and Shakespeare seems +to have intended the meaning not to be more than +snatched at:—<span class="tei tei-q">“By my fay, I cannot reason!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The rugged Pyrrhus—he whose sable arms,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This admirable substitution of the epic for the +dramatic, giving such a reality to the impassioned +dramatic diction of Shakespeare's own dialogue, +and authorised too, by the actual style of the +tragedies before his time (<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Porrex and Ferrex</span></span>, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Titus Andronicus</span></span>, &c.)—is well worthy of notice. The +fancy, that a burlesque was intended, sinks below +criticism: the lines, as epic narrative, are superb. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In the thoughts, and even in the separate parts +of the diction, this description is highly poetical: +in truth, taken by itself, that is its fault that it is +too poetical!—the language of lyric vehemence and +epic pomp, and not of the drama. But if Shakespeare +had made the diction truly dramatic, where +would have been the contrast between Hamlet and +the play in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Had seen the <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">mobled</span></em> queen,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A mob-cap is still a word in common use for a +morning cap, which conceals the whole head of +hair, and passes under the chin. It is nearly the +same as the night-cap, that is, it is an imitation of +it, so as to answer the purpose (<span class="tei tei-q">“I am not drest +for company”</span>), and yet reconciling it with neatness +and perfect purity. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Hamlet's soliloquy:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page221">[pg 221]</span><a name="Pg221" id="Pg221" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is Shakespeare's own attestation to the truth +of the idea of Hamlet which I have before put forth. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The spirit that I have seen,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">May be a devil: and the devil hath power</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Out of my weakness, and my melancholy</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">(As he is very potent with such spirits),</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Abuses me to damn me.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +See Sir Thomas Brown:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I believe ... that those apparitions and ghosts of departed +persons are not the wandering souls of men, but the unquiet walks +of devils, prompting and suggesting us unto mischief, blood, and +villany, instilling and stealing into our hearts, that the blessed +spirits are not at rest in their graves, but wander solicitous of the +affairs of the world.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Relig. Med.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> part. i. sect. 37. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1. Hamlet's soliloquy:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“To be, or not to be, that is the question,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This speech is of absolutely universal interest,—and +yet to which of all Shakespeare's characters +could it have been appropriately given but to +Hamlet? For Jaques it would have been too +deep, and for Iago too habitual a communion with +the heart; which in every man belongs, or ought +to belong, to all mankind. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">No traveller returns.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald's note in defence of the supposed contradiction +of this in the apparition of the Ghost. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O miserable defender! If it be necessary to +remove the apparent contradiction,—if it be not +rather a great beauty,—surely, it were easy to say, +that no traveller returns to this world, as to his +home, or abiding-place. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Ha, ha! are you honest?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Oph.</span></span> My lord?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Are you fair?”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page222">[pg 222]</span><a name="Pg222" id="Pg222" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Here it is evident that the penetrating Hamlet +perceives, from the strange and forced manner of +Ophelia, that the sweet girl was not acting a part +of her own, but was a decoy; and his after speeches +are not so much directed to her as to the listeners +and spies. Such a discovery in a mood so anxious +and irritable accounts for a certain harshness in +him;—and yet a wild up-working of love, sporting +with opposites in a wilful self-tormenting strain of +irony, is perceptible throughout. <span class="tei tei-q">“I did love you +once:”</span>—<span class="tei tei-q">“I lov'd you not:”</span>—and particularly in +his enumeration of the faults of the sex from which +Ophelia is so free, that the mere freedom therefrom +constitutes her character. Note Shakespeare's +charm of composing the female character by the +absence of characters, that is, marks and out-juttings. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Hamlet's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married +already, all but one, shall live: the rest shall keep as they are.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Observe this dallying with the inward purpose, +characteristic of one who had not brought his mind +to the steady acting point. He would fain sting +the uncle's mind;—but to stab his body!—The +soliloquy of Ophelia, which follows, is the perfection +of love—so exquisitely unselfish! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. This dialogue of Hamlet with the +players is one of the happiest instances of Shakespeare's +power of diversifying the scene while he +is carrying on the plot. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> My lord, you played once i' the university, +you say?”</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">(<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">To Polonius.</span></span>)</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +To have kept Hamlet's love for Ophelia before the +audience in any direct form, would have made a +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page223">[pg 223]</span><a name="Pg223" id="Pg223" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +breach in the unity of the interest;—but yet to +the thoughtful reader it is suggested by his spite +to poor Polonius, whom he cannot let rest. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> The style of the interlude here is distinguished +from the real dialogue by rhyme, as in +the first interview with the players by epic verse. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ros.</span></span> My lord, you once did love me.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">So</span></em> I do still, by these +pickers and stealers.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I never heard an actor give this word <span class="tei tei-q">“so”</span> its +proper emphasis. Shakespeare's meaning is—<span class="tei tei-q">“lov'd +you? Hum!—<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">so</span></em> I do still,”</span> &c. There +has been no change in my opinion:—I think as ill +of you as I did. Else Hamlet tells an ignoble +falsehood, and a useless one, as the last speech to +Guildenstern—<span class="tei tei-q">“Why look you now,”</span> &c.—proves. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Hamlet's soliloquy:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Now could I drink hot blood,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And do such business as the bitter day</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Would quake to look on.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The utmost at which Hamlet arrives, is a disposition, +a mood, to do something:—but what to do, +is still left undecided, while every word he utters +tends to betray his disguise. Yet observe how +perfectly equal to any call of the moment is Hamlet, +let it only not be for the future. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Speech of Polonius. Polonius's volunteer +obtrusion of himself into this business, while +it is appropriate to his character, still itching after +former importance, removes all likelihood that +Hamlet should suspect his presence, and prevents +us from making his death injure Hamlet in our +opinion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> The king's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page224">[pg 224]</span><a name="Pg224" id="Pg224" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This speech well marks the difference between +crime and guilt of habit. The conscience here is +still admitted to audience. Nay, even as an audible +soliloquy, it is far less improbable than is supposed +by such as have watched men only in the beaten +road of their feelings. But the final—<span class="tei tei-q">“all may +be well!”</span> is remarkable;—the degree of merit +attributed by the self-flattering soul to its own +struggle, though baffled, and to the indefinite half-promise, +half-command, to persevere in religious +duties. The solution is in the divine <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">medium</span></em> of the +Christian doctrine of expiation:—not what you +have done, but what you are, must determine. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Hamlet's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And now I'll do't:—And so he goes to heaven:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And so am I revenged? That would be scann'd,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Dr. Johnson's mistaking of the marks of reluctance +and procrastination for impetuous, horror-striking, +fiendishness!—Of such importance is it to understand +the germ of a character. But the interval +taken by Hamlet's speech is truly awful! And +then— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O what a lesson concerning the essential difference +between wishing and willing, and the folly of +all motive-mongering, while the individual self +remains! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> A bloody deed;—almost as bad, +good mother,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As kill a king, and marry with his brother.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Queen.</span></span> As kill a king?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I confess that Shakespeare has left the character +of the Queen in an unpleasant perplexity. Was +she, or was she not, conscious of the fratricide? +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page225">[pg 225]</span><a name="Pg225" id="Pg225" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ros.</span></span> Take you me for a spunge, my lord?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ham.</span></span> Ay, Sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">rewards, his authorities,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Hamlet's madness is made to consist in the free +utterance of all the thoughts that had passed +through his mind before;—in fact, in telling +home-truths. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 5. Ophelia's singing. O, note the +conjunction here of these two thoughts that had +never subsisted in disjunction, the love for Hamlet, +and her filial love, with the guileless floating on the +surface of her pure imagination of the cautions so +lately expressed, and the fears not too delicately +avowed, by her father and brother, concerning the +dangers to which her honour lay exposed. Thought, +affliction, passion, murder itself—she turns to favour +and prettiness. This play of association is instanced +in the close:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">My brother shall know of it, and I thank you for your good +counsel.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Gentleman's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And as the world were now but to begin</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Antiquity forgot, custom not known,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The ratifiers and props of every word—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">They cry,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Fearful and self-suspicious as I always feel, when +I seem to see an error of judgment in Shakespeare, +yet I cannot reconcile the cool, and, as Warburton +calls it, <span class="tei tei-q">“rational and consequential,”</span> reflection in +these lines with the anonymousness, or the alarm, +of this Gentleman or Messenger, as he is called in +other editions. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> King's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“There's such divinity doth hedge a king,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That treason can but peep to what it would,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Acts little of his will.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page226">[pg 226]</span><a name="Pg226" id="Pg226" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Proof, as indeed all else is, that Shakespeare +never intended us to see the King with Hamlet's +eyes; though, I suspect, the managers have long +done so. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Laertes:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Laertes is a </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">good</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> character, but,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> +&c.—</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-variant: small-caps">Warburton.</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Mercy on Warburton's notion of goodness! +Please to refer to the seventh scene of this act;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I will do't;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +uttered by Laertes after the King's description of +Hamlet;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He being remiss,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Most generous, and free from all contriving,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Will not peruse the foils.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Yet I acknowledge that Shakespeare evidently +wishes, as much as possible, to spare the character +of Laertes,—to break the extreme turpitude of his +consent to become an agent and accomplice of the +King's treachery;—and to this end he re-introduces +Ophelia at the close of this scene to afford a +probable stimulus of passion in her brother. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6. Hamlet's capture by the pirates. +This is almost the only play of Shakespeare, in +which mere accidents, independent of all will, form +an essential part of the plot;—but here how +judiciously in keeping with the character of the +over-meditative Hamlet, ever at last determined +by accident or by a fit of passion! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 7. Note how the King first awakens +Laertes's vanity by praising the reporter, and then +gratifies it by the report itself, and finally points it +by— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Sir, this report of his</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy!”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page227">[pg 227]</span><a name="Pg227" id="Pg227" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> King's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For goodness, growing to a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">pleurisy</span></em>,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Dies in his own too much.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald's note from Warburton, who conjectures +<span class="tei tei-q">“plethory.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I rather think that Shakespeare meant <span class="tei tei-q">“pleurisy,”</span> +but involved in it the thought of <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">plethora</span></em>, as +supposing pleurisy to arise from too much blood; +otherwise I cannot explain the following line— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And then this <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">should</span></em> is like a spendthrift sigh,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That hurts by easing.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In a stitch in the side every one must have heaved +a sigh that <span class="tei tei-q">“hurt by easing.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Since writing the above I feel confirmed that +<span class="tei tei-q">“pleurisy”</span> is the right word; for I find that in +the old medical dictionaries the pleurisy is often +called the <span class="tei tei-q">“plethory.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Queen.</span></span> Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Laer.</span></span> Drown'd! O, where?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +That Laertes might be excused in some degree for +not cooling, the Act concludes with the affecting +death of Ophelia,—who in the beginning lay like +a little projection of land into a lake or stream, +covered with spray-flowers, quietly reflected in +the quiet waters, but at length is undermined or +loosened, and becomes a faery isle, and after a brief +vagrancy sinks almost without an eddy! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 1. O, the rich contrast between the +Clowns and Hamlet, as two extremes! You see in +the former the mockery of logic, and a traditional +wit valued, like truth, for its antiquity, and +treasured up, like a tune, for use. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 1 and 2. Shakespeare seems to mean all +Hamlet's character to be brought together before +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page228">[pg 228]</span><a name="Pg228" id="Pg228" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +his final disappearance from the scene;—his meditative +excess in the grave-digging, his yielding to +passion with Laertes, his love for Ophelia blazing +out, his tendency to generalise on all occasions in +the dialogue with Horatio, his fine gentlemanly +manners with Osrick, and his and Shakespeare's +own fondness for presentment:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">But thou wouldst not think, how ill all's here about my heart: +but it is no matter.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page229">[pg 229]</span><a name="Pg229" id="Pg229" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc75" id="toc75"></a> +<a name="pdf76" id="pdf76"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Macbeth.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Macbeth”</span> stands in contrast throughout +with <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>; in the manner of opening +more especially. In the latter, there is a gradual +ascent from the simplest forms of conversation to +the language of impassioned intellect,—yet the +intellect still remaining the seat of passion: in +the former, the invocation is at once made to the +imagination and the emotions connected therewith. +Hence the movement throughout is the +most rapid of all Shakespeare's plays; and hence +also, with the exception of the disgusting passage +of the Porter (Act ii. sc. 3), which I dare pledge +myself to demonstrate to be an interpolation of +the actors, there is not, to the best of my remembrance, +a single pun or play on words in the whole +drama. I have previously given an answer to the +thousand times repeated charge against Shakespeare +upon the subject of his punning, and I here +merely mention the fact of the absence of any +puns in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>, as justifying a candid doubt, at +least, whether even in these figures of speech and +fanciful modifications of language, Shakespeare +may not have followed rules and principles that +merit and would stand the test of philosophic +examination. And hence, also, there is an entire +absence of comedy, nay, even of irony and philosophic +contemplation in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>,—the play being +wholly and purely tragic. For the same cause, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page230">[pg 230]</span><a name="Pg230" id="Pg230" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +there are no reasonings of equivocal morality, +which would have required a more leisurely state +and a consequently greater activity of mind;—no +sophistry of self-delusion,—except only that previously +to the dreadful act, Macbeth mistranslates +the recoilings and ominous whispers of conscience +into prudential and selfish reasonings; and, after +the deed done, the terrors of remorse into fear +from external dangers,—like delirious men who +run away from the phantoms of their own brains, +or, raised by terror to rage, stab the real object +that is within their reach:—whilst Lady Macbeth +merely endeavours to reconcile his and her own +sinkings of heart by anticipations of the worst, +and an affected bravado in confronting them. In +all the rest, Macbeth's language is the grave +utterance of the very heart, conscience-sick, even +to the last faintings of moral death. It is the +same in all the other characters. The variety +arises from rage, caused ever and anon by disruption +of anxious thought, and the quick transition +of fear into it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span> and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span> the scene opens with +superstition; but, in each it is not merely different, +but opposite. In the first it is connected with the +best and holiest feelings; in the second with the +shadowy, turbulent, and unsanctified cravings of +the individual will. Nor is the purpose the same; +in the one the object is to excite, whilst in the +other it is to mark a mind already excited. +Superstition, of one sort or another, is natural +to victorious generals; the instances are too +notorious to need mentioning. There is so much +of chance in warfare, and such vast events are +connected with the acts of a single individual,—the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page231">[pg 231]</span><a name="Pg231" id="Pg231" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +representative, in truth, of the efforts of +myriads, and yet to the public, and doubtless to +his own feelings, the aggregate of all,—that the +proper temperament for generating or receiving +superstitious impressions is naturally produced. +Hope, the master element of a commanding genius, +meeting with an active and combining intellect, +and an imagination of just that degree of vividness +which disquiets and impels the soul to try to +realise its images, greatly increases the creative +power of the mind; and hence the images become +a satisfying world of themselves, as is the case in +every poet and original philosopher:—but hope +fully gratified, and yet the elementary basis of the +passion remaining, becomes fear; and, indeed, the +general, who must often feel, even though he may +hide it from his own consciousness, how large a +share chance had in his successes, may very naturally +be irresolute in a new scene, where he knows +that all will depend on his own act and election. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The Weird Sisters are as true a creation of +Shakespeare's, as his Ariel and Caliban,—fates, +furies, and materialising witches being the elements. +They are wholly different from any representation +of witches in the contemporary +writers, and yet presented a sufficient external resemblance +to the creatures of vulgar prejudice to +act immediately on the audience. Their character +consists in the imaginative disconnected from the +good; they are the shadowy obscure and fearfully +anomalous of physical nature, the lawless of +human nature,—elemental avengers without sex +or kin:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Fair is foul, and foul is fair;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Hover through the fog and filthy air.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page232">[pg 232]</span><a name="Pg232" id="Pg232" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How much it were to be wished in playing <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span>, +that an attempt should be made to introduce +the flexile character-mask of the ancient pantomime;—that +Flaxman would contribute his genius +to the embodying and making sensuously perceptible +that of Shakespeare! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The style and rhythm of the Captain's speeches +in the second scene should be illustrated by reference +to the interlude in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Hamlet</span></span>, in which the epic +is substituted for the tragic, in order to make the +latter be felt as the real-life diction. In <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Macbeth</span></span> +the poet's object was to raise the mind at once to +the high tragic tone, that the audience might be +ready for the precipitate consummation of guilt in +the early part of the play. The true reason for +the first appearance of the Witches is to strike +the key-note of the character of the whole drama, +as is proved by their re-appearance in the third +scene, after such an order of the king's as establishes +their supernatural power of information. I +say information,—for so it only is as to Glamis +and Cawdor; the <span class="tei tei-q">“king hereafter”</span> was still contingent,—still +in Macbeth's moral will; although, +if he should yield to the temptation, and thus +forfeit his free agency, the link of cause and effect +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">more physico</span></span> would then commence. I need not +say, that the general idea is all that can be required +from the poet,—not a scholastic logical +consistency in all the parts so as to meet metaphysical +objectors. But O! how truly Shakespearian +is the opening of Macbeth's character +given in the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">unpossessedness</span></em> of Banquo's mind, +wholly present to the present object,—an unsullied, +unscarified mirror! And how strictly +true to nature it is that Banquo, and not Macbeth +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page233">[pg 233]</span><a name="Pg233" id="Pg233" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +himself, directs our notice to the effect produced +on Macbeth's mind, rendered temptible by previous +dalliance of the fancy with ambitious +thoughts:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Good Sir, why do you start; and seem to fear</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Things that do sound so fair?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And then, again, still unintroitive, addresses the +Witches:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 6.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I' the name of truth,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Are ye fantastical, or that indeed</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Which outwardly ye show?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Banquo's questions are those of natural curiosity,—such +as a girl would put after hearing a gipsy +tell her schoolfellow's fortune;—all perfectly +general, or rather, planless. But Macbeth, lost +in thought, raises himself to speech only by the +Witches being about to depart:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and all that follows is reasoning on a problem +already discussed in his mind,—on a hope which +he welcomes, and the doubts concerning the +attainment of which he wishes to have cleared up. +Compare his eagerness,—the keen eye with which +he has pursued the Witches' evanishing— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Speak, I charge you!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +with the easily satisfied mind of the self-uninterested +Banquo:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The air hath bubbles, as the water has,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And these are of them:—Whither are they vanish'd?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and then Macbeth's earnest reply,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">As breath into the wind.—<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Would they had +stay'd!</span></em>”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Is it too minute to notice the appropriateness of +the simile <span class="tei tei-q">“as breath,”</span> &c., in a cold climate? +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page234">[pg 234]</span><a name="Pg234" id="Pg234" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Still again Banquo goes on wondering like any +common spectator,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Were such things here as we do speak about?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +whilst Macbeth persists in recurring to the self-concerning:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Your children shall be kings.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ban.</span></span> You shall be king.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Macb.</span></span> And thane of Cawdor too: went it +not so?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +So surely is the guilt in its germ anterior to the +supposed cause, and immediate temptation! Before +he can cool, the confirmation of the tempting half +of the prophecy arrives, and the concatenating +tendency of the imagination is fostered by the +sudden coincidence:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Glamis, and thane of Cawdor:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The greatest is behind.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Oppose this to Banquo's simple surprise:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“What, can the devil speak true?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Banquo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“That, trusted home,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Besides the thane of Cawdor.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I doubt whether <span class="tei tei-q">“enkindle”</span> has not another +sense than that of <span class="tei tei-q">“stimulating;”</span> I mean of +<span class="tei tei-q">“kind”</span> and <span class="tei tei-q">“kin,”</span> as when rabbits are said to +<span class="tei tei-q">“kindle.”</span> However, Macbeth no longer hears +anything <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ab extra</span></span>:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Two truths are told,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As happy prologues to the swelling act</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Of the imperial theme.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Then in the necessity of recollecting himself,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I thank you, gentlemen.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Then he relapses into himself again, and every +word of his soliloquy shows the early birth-date of +his guilt. He is all-powerful without strength; +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page235">[pg 235]</span><a name="Pg235" id="Pg235" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +he wishes the end, but is irresolute as to the +means; conscience distinctly warns him, and he +lulls it imperfectly:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Without my stir.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Lost in the prospective of his guilt, he turns round +alarmed lest others may suspect what is passing +in his own mind, and instantly vents the lie of +ambition:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“My dull brain was wrought</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">With things <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">forgotten</span></em>;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and immediately after pours forth the promising +courtesies of a usurper in intention:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 8.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Kind gentlemen, your pains</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Are register'd where every day I turn</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The leaf to read them.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Macbeth's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Present <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">fears</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Are less than horrible imaginings.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's note, and substitution of <span class="tei tei-q">“feats”</span> for +<span class="tei tei-q">“fears.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Mercy on this most wilful ingenuity of blundering, +which, nevertheless, was the very Warburton +of Warburton—his inmost being! <span class="tei tei-q">“Fears,”</span> +here, are present fear-striking objects, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">terribilia +adstantia</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. O! the affecting beauty of the death +of Cawdor, and the presentimental speech of the +king:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“There's no art</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To find the mind's construction in the face:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">He was a gentleman on whom I built</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">An absolute trust.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Interrupted by— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O worthiest cousin!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +on the entrance of the deeper traitor for whom +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page236">[pg 236]</span><a name="Pg236" id="Pg236" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Cawdor had made way! And here in contrast with +Duncan's <span class="tei tei-q">“plenteous joys,”</span> Macbeth has nothing +but the common-places of loyalty, in which he hides +himself with <span class="tei tei-q">“our duties.”</span> Note the exceeding +effort of Macbeth's addresses to the king, his +reasoning on his allegiance, and then especially +when a new difficulty, the designation of a successor, +suggests a new crime. This, however, seems +the first distinct notion, as to the plan of realising +his wishes; and here, therefore, with great propriety, +Macbeth's cowardice of his own conscience +discloses itself. I always think there is something +especially Shakespearian in Duncan's speeches +throughout this scene, such pourings forth, such +abandonments, compared with the language of +vulgar dramatists, whose characters seem to have +made their speeches as the actors learn them. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib:</span></span> Duncan's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Sons, kinsmen, thanes,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And you whose places are the nearest, know,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">We will establish our estate upon</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Our eldest Malcolm, whom we name hereafter</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The Prince of Cumberland: which honour must</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Not unaccompanied, invest him only;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">On all deservers.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is a fancy;—but I can never read this and +the following speeches of Macbeth, without involuntarily +thinking of the Miltonic Messiah and +Satan. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5. Macbeth is described by Lady Macbeth +so as at the same time to reveal her own +character. Could he have every thing he wanted, +he would rather have it innocently;—ignorant, as +alas! how many of us are, that he who wishes a +temporal end for itself, does in truth will the +means; and hence the danger of indulging fancies. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page237">[pg 237]</span><a name="Pg237" id="Pg237" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Lady Macbeth, like all in Shakespeare, is a class +individualised:—of high rank, left much alone, +and feeding herself with day-dreams of ambition, +she mistakes the courage of fantasy for the power +of bearing the consequences of the realities of guilt. +His is the mock fortitude of a mind deluded by +ambition; she shames her husband with a superhuman +audacity of fancy which she cannot support, +but sinks in the season of remorse, and dies in +suicidal agony. Her speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Come, you spirits</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +is that of one who had habitually familiarised her +imagination to dreadful conceptions, and was trying +to do so still more. Her invocations and +requisitions are all the false efforts of a mind +accustomed only hitherto to the shadows of the +imagination, vivid enough to throw the every-day +substances of life into shadow, but never as yet +brought into direct contact with their own correspondent +realities. She evinces no womanly life, +no wifely joy, at the return of her husband, no +pleased terror at the thought of his past dangers, +whilst Macbeth bursts forth naturally— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“My dearest love”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and shrinks from the boldness with which she presents +his own thoughts to him. With consummate +art she at first uses as incentives the very circumstances, +Duncan's coming to their house, &c., which +Macbeth's conscience would most probably have +adduced to her as motives of abhorrence or repulsion. +Yet Macbeth is not prepared:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“We will speak further.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6. The lyrical movement with which this +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page238">[pg 238]</span><a name="Pg238" id="Pg238" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +scene opens, and the free and unengaged mind of +Banquo, loving nature, and rewarded in the love +itself, form a highly dramatic contrast with the +laboured rhythm and hypocritical over-much of +Lady Macbeth's welcome, in which you cannot +detect a ray of personal feeling, but all is thrown +upon the <span class="tei tei-q">“dignities,”</span> the general duty. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 7. Macbeth's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“We will proceed no further in this business:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Golden opinions from all sorts of people,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Not cast aside so soon.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Note the inward pangs and warnings of conscience +interpreted into prudential reasonings. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Banquo's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Gives way to in repose.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The disturbance of an innocent soul by painful +suspicions of another's guilty intentions and wishes, +and fear of the cursed thoughts of sensual nature. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Now that the deed is done or doing—now +that the first reality commences, Lady Macbeth +shrinks. The most simple sound strikes +terror, the most natural consequences are horrible, +whilst previously every thing, however awful, +appeared a mere trifle; conscience, which before +had been hidden to Macbeth in selfish and prudential +fears, now rushes in upon him in her own +veritable person:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Methought I heard a voice cry—Sleep no more!</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">I could not say Amen,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">When they did say, God bless us!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +And see the novelty given to the most familiar +images by a new state of feeling. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page239">[pg 239]</span><a name="Pg239" id="Pg239" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. This low soliloquy of the Porter and +his few speeches afterwards, I believe to have been +written for the mob by some other hand, perhaps +with Shakespeare's consent; and that finding it +take, he with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise +employed, just interpolated the words— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in +some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting +bonfire.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Of the rest not one syllable has the ever-present +being of Shakespeare. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1. Compare Macbeth's mode of working +on the murderers in this place with Schiller's +mistaken scene between Butler, Devereux, and +Macdonald in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Wallenstein</span></span>.—(Part II. act iv. sc. 2.) +The comic was wholly out of season. Shakespeare +never introduces it, but when it may react on the +tragedy by harmonious contrast. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. Macbeth's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">In the affliction of these terrible dreams</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That shake us nightly.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Ever and ever mistaking the anguish of conscience +for fears of selfishness, and thus as a punishment +of that selfishness, plunging still deeper in +guilt and ruin. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Macbeth's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Till thou applaud the deed.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is Macbeth's sympathy with his own feelings, +and his mistaking his wife's opposite state. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Macb.</span></span> It will have blood; they say, +blood will have blood:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Augurs, and understood relations, have</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The secret'st man of blood.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page240">[pg 240]</span><a name="Pg240" id="Pg240" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The deed is done; but Macbeth receives no +comfort, no additional security. He has by guilt +torn himself live-asunder from nature, and is, +therefore, himself in a preternatural state: no +wonder, then, that he is inclined to superstition, +and faith in the unknown of signs and tokens, and +super-human agencies. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Len.</span></span> 'Tis two or three, my lord, that +bring you word</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Macduff is fled to England.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Macb.</span></span> Fled to England!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The acme of the avenging conscience. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2. This scene, dreadful as it is, is still a +relief, because a variety, because domestic, and +therefore soothing, as associated with the only real +pleasures of life. The conversation between Lady +Macduff and her child heightens the pathos, and is +preparatory for the deep tragedy of their assassination. +Shakespeare's fondness for children is everywhere +shown;—in Prince Arthur, in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">King John</span></span>; +in the sweet scene in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Winter's Tale</span></span> between +Hermione and her son; nay, even in honest +Evans's examination of Mrs. Page's schoolboy. +To the objection that Shakespeare wounds the +moral sense by the unsubdued, undisguised +description of the most hateful atrocity—that he +tears the feelings without mercy, and even outrages +the eye itself with scenes of insupportable +horror—I, omitting <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Titus Andronicus</span></span>, as not +genuine, and excepting the scene of Gloster's +blinding in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, answer boldly in the name of +Shakespeare, not guilty. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Malcolm's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 9.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Better Macbeth,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Than such an one to reign.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page241">[pg 241]</span><a name="Pg241" id="Pg241" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The moral is—the dreadful effects even on the +best minds of the soul-sickening sense of insecurity. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> How admirably Macduff's grief is in harmony +with the whole play! It rends, not dissolves, +the heart. <span class="tei tei-q">“The tune of it goes manly.”</span> Thus +is Shakespeare always master of himself and of his +subject,—a genuine Proteus:—we see all things in +him, as images in a calm lake, most distinct, most +accurate,—only more splendid, more glorified. +This is correctness in the only philosophical sense. +But he requires your sympathy and your submission; +you must have that recipiency of moral +impression without which the purposes and ends +of the drama would be frustrated, and the absence +of which demonstrates an utter want of all imagination, +a deadness to that necessary pleasure of +being innocently—shall I say, deluded?—or +rather, drawn away from ourselves to the music of +noblest thought in harmonious sounds. Happy +he, who not only in the public theatre, but in the +labours of a profession, and round the light of his +own hearth, still carries a heart so pleasure-fraught! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Alas for Macbeth! now all is inward with him; +he has no more prudential prospective reasonings. +His wife, the only being who could have had any +seat in his affections, dies; he puts on despondency, +the final heart-armour of the wretched, and would +fain think every thing shadowy and unsubstantial, +as indeed all things are to those who cannot regard +them as symbols of goodness:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Out, out, brief candle!</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And then is heard no more; it is a tale</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Signifying nothing.”</span></div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page243">[pg 243]</span><a name="Pg243" id="Pg243" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc77" id="toc77"></a> +<a name="pdf78" id="pdf78"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Winter's Tale.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Although, on the whole, this play is exquisitely +respondent to its title, and even in the +fault I am about to mention, still a winter's tale; +yet it seems a mere indolence of the great bard not +to have provided in the oracular response (Act ii. +sc. 2.) some ground for Hermione's seeming death +and fifteen years' voluntary concealment. This +might have been easily effected by some obscure +sentence of the oracle, as for example:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“ </span><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">‘</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Nor shall he ever recover an heir, if he have a wife before +that recovery.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">’</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> ”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The idea of this delightful drama is a genuine +jealousy of disposition, and it should be immediately +followed by the perusal of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span>, which +is the direct contrast of it in every particular. +For jealousy is a vice of the mind, a culpable +tendency of the temper, having certain well-known +and well-defined effects and concomitants, all of +which are visible in Leontes, and, I boldly say, not +one of which marks its presence in Othello;—such +as, first, an excitability by the most inadequate +causes, and an eagerness to snatch at proofs; +secondly, a grossness of conception, and a disposition +to degrade the object of the passion by sensual +fancies and images; thirdly, a sense of shame of +his own feelings exhibited in a solitary moodiness +of humour, and yet from the violence of the passion +forced to utter itself, and therefore catching occasions +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page244">[pg 244]</span><a name="Pg244" id="Pg244" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +to ease the mind by ambiguities, equivoques, +by talking to those who cannot, and who are known +not to be able to, understand what is said to them,—in +short, by soliloquy in the form of dialogue, +and hence a confused, broken, and fragmentary, +manner; fourthly, a dread of vulgar ridicule, as +distinct from a high sense of honour, or a mistaken +sense of duty; and lastly, and immediately, consequent +on this, a spirit of selfish vindictiveness. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1, 2.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Observe the easy style of chitchat between +Camillo and Archidamus as contrasted with the +elevated diction on the introduction of the kings +and Hermione in the second scene: and how +admirably Polixenes' obstinate refusal to Leontes +to stay,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“There is no tongue that moves; none, none i' the world</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">So soon as yours, could win me;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +prepares for the effect produced by his afterwards +yielding to Hermione;—which is, nevertheless, +perfectly natural from mere courtesy of sex, and +the exhaustion of the will by former efforts of +denial, and well calculated to set in nascent action +the jealousy of Leontes. This, when once excited, +is unconsciously increased by Hermione,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yet, good deed, Leontes,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">What lady she her lord;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +accompanied, as a good actress ought to represent +it, by an expression and recoil of apprehension that +she had gone too far. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“At my request, he would not:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The first working of the jealous fit;— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Too hot, too hot:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page245">[pg 245]</span><a name="Pg245" id="Pg245" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The morbid tendency of Leontes to lay hold of +the merest trifles, and his grossness immediately +afterwards,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Paddling palms and pinching fingers;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +followed by his strange loss of self-control in his +dialogue with the little boy. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 2. Paulina's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That did but show thee, of a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">fool</span></em>, inconstant,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And damnable ingrateful.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald reads <span class="tei tei-q">“soul.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I think the original word is Shakespeare's. +1. My ear feels it to be Shakespearian; 2. The +involved grammar is Shakespearian—<span class="tei tei-q">“show thee, +being a fool naturally, to have improved thy folly +by inconstancy;”</span> 3. The alteration is most flat, +and un-Shakespearian. As to the grossness of +the abuse—she calls him <span class="tei tei-q">“gross and foolish”</span> a +few lines below. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. Speech of Autolycus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For the life to come, I sleep out the thought of it.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Fine as this is, and delicately characteristic of +one who had lived and been reared in the best +society, and had been precipitated from it by dice +and drabbing; yet still it strikes against my feelings +as a note out of tune, and as not coalescing +with that pastoral tint which gives such a charm +to this act. It is too Macbeth-like in the <span class="tei tei-q">“snapper +up of unconsidered trifles.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. Perdita's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“From Dis's waggon! daffodils.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +An epithet is wanted here, not merely or chiefly +for the metre, but for the balance, for the æsthetic +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page246">[pg 246]</span><a name="Pg246" id="Pg246" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +logic. Perhaps <span class="tei tei-q">“golden”</span> was the word which +would set off the <span class="tei tei-q">“violets dim.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Pale primroses</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That die unmarried.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Milton's— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And the rathe primrose that forsaken dies.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Perdita's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Even here undone:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I was not much afraid; for once or twice</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I was about to speak, and tell him plainly,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The self-same sun, that shines upon his court,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Hides not his visage from our cottage, but</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Looks on alike. Will't please you, Sir, be gone!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">(<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">To Florizel.</span></span>)</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I told you, what would come of this. Beseech you,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of your own state take care: this dream of mine,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But milk my ewes, and weep.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O how more than exquisite is this whole speech! +And that profound nature of noble pride and grief +venting themselves in a momentary peevishness of +resentment toward Florizel:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Will't please you, Sir, be gone!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Autolycus:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen, and +they often give us soldiers the lie; but we pay them for it with +stamped coin, not stabbing steel;—therefore they do not +</span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">give</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> us the lie.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +As we <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">pay</span></em> them, they, therefore, do not <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">give</span></em> +it us. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page247">[pg 247]</span><a name="Pg247" id="Pg247" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc79" id="toc79"></a> +<a name="pdf80" id="pdf80"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Othello.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Admirable is the preparation, so truly and +peculiarly Shakespearian, in the introduction +of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall first +exercise his art, and in so doing display his own +character. Roderigo, without any fixed principle, +but not without the moral notions and sympathies +with honour, which his rank and connections had +hung upon him, is already well fitted and predisposed +for the purpose; for very want of character +and strength of passion, like wind loudest in an +empty house, constitute his character. The first +three lines happily state the nature and foundation +of the friendship between him and Iago,—the +purse,—as also the contrast of Roderigo's intemperance +of mind with Iago's coolness,—the coolness +of a preconceiving experimenter. The mere +language of protestation,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me,”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +which, falling in with the associative link, determines +Roderigo's continuation of complaint,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate,”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +elicits at length a true feeling of Iago's mind, the +dread of contempt habitual to those who encourage +in themselves, and have their keenest pleasure in, +the expression of contempt for others. Observe +Iago's high self-opinion, and the moral, that a +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page248">[pg 248]</span><a name="Pg248" id="Pg248" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +wicked man will employ real feelings, as well as +assume those most alien from his own, as instruments +of his purposes:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And, by the faith of man,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I think Tyrwhitt's reading of <span class="tei tei-q">“life”</span> for +<span class="tei tei-q">“wife”</span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“A fellow almost damn'd in a fair <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">wife</span></em>”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +the true one, as fitting to Iago's contempt for +whatever did not display power, and that intellectual +power. In what follows, let the reader +feel how by and through the glass of two passions, +disappointed vanity and envy, the very vices of +which he is complaining, are made to act upon +him as if they were so many excellences, and the +more appropriately, because cunning is always +admired and wished for by minds conscious of +inward weakness;—but they act only by half, +like music on an inattentive auditor, swelling the +thoughts which prevent him from listening to it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Rod.</span></span> What a full fortune does the +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">thick-lips</span></em> owe,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">If he can carry 't thus.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Roderigo turns off to Othello; and here comes +one, if not the only, seeming justification of our +blackamoor or negro Othello. Even if we supposed +this an uninterrupted tradition of the +theatre, and that Shakespeare himself, from want +of scenes, and the experience that nothing could +be made too marked for the senses of his audience, +had practically sanctioned it,—would this prove +aught concerning his own intention as a poet for +all ages? Can we imagine him so utterly ignorant +as to make a barbarous negro plead royal birth,—at +a time, too, when negroes were not known +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page249">[pg 249]</span><a name="Pg249" id="Pg249" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +except as slaves? As for Iago's language to +Brabantio, it implies merely that Othello was a +Moor,—that is, black. Though I think the rivalry +of Roderigo sufficient to account for his wilful +confusion of Moor and Negro,—yet, even if compelled +to give this up, I should think it only +adapted for the acting of the day, and should +complain of an enormity built on a single word, +in direct contradiction to Iago's <span class="tei tei-q">“Barbary horse.”</span> +Besides, if we could in good earnest believe Shakespeare +ignorant of the distinction, still why should +we adopt one disagreeable possibility instead of a +ten times greater and more pleasing probability? +It is a common error to mistake the epithets +applied by the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dramatis personæ</span></span> to each other, as +truly descriptive of what the audience ought to +see or know. No doubt Desdemona saw Othello's +visage in his mind; yet, as we are constituted, +and most surely as an English audience was disposed +in the beginning of the seventeenth century, +it would be something monstrous to conceive this +beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable +negro. It would argue a disproportionateness, +a want of balance, in Desdemona, which Shakespeare +does not appear to have in the least contemplated. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Brabantio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This accident is not unlike my dream.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The old careful senator, being caught careless, +transfers his caution to his dreaming power at +least. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Iago's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For their souls,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Another of his fathom they have not,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To lead their business.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page250">[pg 250]</span><a name="Pg250" id="Pg250" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The forced praise of Othello, followed by the +bitter hatred of him in this speech! And observe +how Brabantio's dream prepares for his recurrence +to the notion of philtres, and how both prepare for +carrying on the plot of the arraignment of Othello +on this ground. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 2.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Oth.</span></span> 'Tis better as it is.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +How well these few words impress at the outset +the truth of Othello's own character of himself at +the end—<span class="tei tei-q">“that he was not easily wrought!”</span> His +self-government contradistinguishes him throughout +from Leontes. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Othello's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And my demerits</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">May speak, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">unbonneted</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The argument in Theobald's note, where <span class="tei tei-q">“and +bonneted”</span> is suggested, goes on the assumption +that Shakespeare could not use the same word +differently in different places; whereas I should +conclude, that as in the passage in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> the word +is employed in its direct meaning, so here it is +used metaphorically; and this is confirmed by +what has escaped the editors, that it is not <span class="tei tei-q">“I,”</span> +but <span class="tei tei-q">“my demerits”</span> that may speak unbonneted,—without +the symbol of a petitioning inferior. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Othello's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“So please your grace, my ancient;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">A man he is of honesty and trust:</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To his conveyance I assign my wife.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Compare this with the behaviour of Leontes to +his true friend Camillo. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Bra.</span></span> Look to her, Moor; if thou hast +eyes to see;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">She has deceived her father, and may thee.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Oth.</span></span> My life upon her faith.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page251">[pg 251]</span><a name="Pg251" id="Pg251" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In real life, how do we look back to little +speeches as presentimental of, or contrasted with, +an affecting event! Even so, Shakespeare, as +secure of being read over and over, of becoming a +family friend, provides this passage for his readers, +and leaves it to them. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Iago's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This speech comprises the passionless character +of Iago. It is all will in intellect; and therefore +he is here a bold partizan of a truth, but yet of a +truth converted into a falsehood by the absence of +all the necessary modifications caused by the frail +nature of man. And then comes the last sentiment:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, +whereof I take this, that you call—love, to be a sect or scion!</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Here is the true Iagoism of, alas! how many! +Note Iago's pride of mastery in the repetition of +<span class="tei tei-q">“Go, make money!”</span> to his anticipated dupe, +even stronger than his love of lucre: and when +Roderigo is completely won,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I am chang'd. I'll go sell all my land,”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +when the effect has been fully produced, the +repetition of triumph:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Go to; farewell; put money enough in your purse!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The remainder—Iago's soliloquy—the motive-hunting +of a motiveless malignity—how awful it +is! Yea, whilst he is still allowed to bear the +divine image, it is too fiendish for his own steady +view,—for the lonely gaze of a being next to +devil, and only not quite devil,—and yet a character +which Shakespeare has attempted and executed, +without disgust and without scandal! +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page252">[pg 252]</span><a name="Pg252" id="Pg252" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Dr. Johnson has remarked that little or nothing +is wanting to render the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span> a regular tragedy, +but to have opened the play with the arrival of +Othello in Cyprus, and to have thrown the preceding +act into the form of narration. Here then +is the place to determine whether such a change +would or would not be an improvement;—nay +(to throw down the glove with a full challenge), +whether the tragedy would or not by such an +arrangement become more regular,—that is, more +consonant with the rules dictated by universal +reason, on the true common-sense of mankind, in +its application to the particular case. For in all +acts of judgment, it can never be too often recollected, +and scarcely too often repeated, that rules +are means to ends, and, consequently, that the end +must be determined and understood before it can +be known what the rules are or ought to be. +Now, from a certain species of drama, proposing +to itself the accomplishment of certain ends,—these +partly arising from the idea of the species +itself, but in part, likewise, forced upon the +dramatist by accidental circumstances beyond his +power to remove or control,—three rules have +been abstracted;—in other words, the means most +conducive to the attainment of the proposed ends +have been generalised, and prescribed under the +names of the three unities,—the unity of time, the +unity of place, and the unity of action—which +last would, perhaps, have been as appropriately, +as well as more intelligibly, entitled the unity of +interest. With this last the present question has +no immediate concern: in fact, its conjunction +with the former two is a mere delusion of words. +It is not properly a rule, but in itself the great +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page253">[pg 253]</span><a name="Pg253" id="Pg253" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +end not only of the drama, but of the epic poem, +the lyric ode, of all poetry, down to the candle-flame +cone of an epigram,—nay, of poesy in +general, as the proper generic term inclusive of +all the fine arts as its species. But of the unities +of time and place, which alone are entitled to the +name of rules, the history of their origin will be +their best criterion. You might take the Greek +chorus to a place, but you could not bring a place +to them without as palpable an equivoque as +bringing Birnam wood to Macbeth at Dunsinane. +It was the same, though in a less degree, with +regard to the unity of time:—the positive fact, +not for a moment removed from the senses, the +presence, I mean, of the same identical chorus, +was a continued measure of time;—and although +the imagination may supersede perception, yet it +must be granted to be an imperfection—however +easily tolerated—to place the two in broad contradiction +to each other. In truth, it is a mere +accident of terms; for the Trilogy of the Greek +theatre was a drama in three acts, and notwithstanding +this, what strange contrivances as to +place there are in the Aristophanic Frogs. Besides, +if the law of mere actual perception is once +violated—as it repeatedly is, even in the Greek +tragedies—why is it more difficult to imagine +three hours to be three years than to be a whole +day and night? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Observe in how many ways Othello is made, +first, our acquaintance, then our friend, then the +object of our anxiety, before the deeper interest is +to be approached! +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page254">[pg 254]</span><a name="Pg254" id="Pg254" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mont.</span></span> But, good lieutenant, is your +general wived?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cas.</span></span> Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That paragons description, and wild fame;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And, in the essential vesture of creation,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Does tire the ingener.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Here is Cassio's warm-hearted, yet perfectly disengaged, +praise of Desdemona, and sympathy with +the <span class="tei tei-q">“most fortunately”</span> wived Othello;—and yet +Cassio is an enthusiastic admirer, almost a worshipper, +of Desdemona. Oh, that detestable code +that excellence cannot be loved in any form that +is female, but it must needs be selfish! Observe +Othello's <span class="tei tei-q">“honest”</span> and Cassio's <span class="tei tei-q">“bold”</span> Iago, and +Cassio's full guileless-hearted wishes for the safety +and love-raptures of Othello and <span class="tei tei-q">“the divine +Desdemona.”</span> And also note the exquisite circumstance +of Cassio's kissing Iago's wife, as if it +ought to be impossible that the dullest auditor +should not feel Cassio's religious love of Desdemona's +purity. Iago's answers are the sneers +which a proud bad intellect feels towards women, +and expresses to a wife. Surely it ought to be +considered a very exalted compliment to women, +that all the sarcasms on them in Shakespeare are +put in the mouths of villains. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Des.</span></span> I am not merry; but I do beguile,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The struggle of courtesy in Desdemona to abstract +her attention. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">(</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Iago aside</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">). He takes her by the palm: Ay, well said, whisper; +with as little a web as this, will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. +Ay, smile upon her, do,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The importance given to trifles, and made fertile +by the villany of the observer. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page255">[pg 255]</span><a name="Pg255" id="Pg255" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Iago's dialogue with Roderigo. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is the rehearsal on the dupe of the traitor's +intentions on Othello. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Iago's soliloquy:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“But partly led to diet my revenge,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For that I do suspect the lusty Moor</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Hath leap'd into my seat.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This thought, originally by Iago's own confession +a mere suspicion, is now ripening, and gnaws +his base nature as his own <span class="tei tei-q">“poisonous mineral”</span> is +about to gnaw the noble heart of his general. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Othello's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I know, Iago,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Making it light to Cassio.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Honesty and love! Ay, and who but the reader of +the play could think otherwise? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Iago's soliloquy:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And what's he then that says—I play the villain?</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">When this advice is free I give, and honest,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Provable to thinking, and, indeed, the course</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To win the Moor again.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +He is not, you see, an absolute fiend; or, at +least, he wishes to think himself not so. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 3.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Des.</span></span> Before Æmilia here,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I give thee warrant of thy place.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The over-zeal of innocence in Desdemona. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Enter Desdemona and Æmilia.</span></span></span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Oth.</span></span> If she be false, O, then, heaven mocks itself!</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I'll not believe't.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Divine! The effect of innocence and the better +genius! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Æmil.</span></span> Why, the wrong is but a wrong i' +the world; and</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">and you might quickly make it right.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page256">[pg 256]</span><a name="Pg256" id="Pg256" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Warburton's note. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What any other man, who had learning enough, +might have quoted as a playful and witty illustration +of his remarks against the Calvinistic <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">thesis</span></span>, +Warburton gravely attributes to Shakespeare as +intentional; and this, too, in the mouth of a lady's +woman! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. last scene. Othello's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Of one, whose hand,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Like the base <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Indian</span></span>, threw a pearl away</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Richer than all his tribe,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Theobald's note from Warburton. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Thus it is for no-poets to comment on the +greatest of poets! To make Othello say that he, +who had killed his wife, was like Herod who killed +Mariamne!—O, how many beauties, in this one +line, were impenetrable to the ever thought-swarming, +but idealess, Warburton! Othello +wishes to excuse himself on the score of ignorance, +and yet not to excuse himself,—to excuse himself +by accusing. This struggle of feeling is finely +conveyed in the word <span class="tei tei-q">“base,”</span> which is applied to +the rude Indian, not in his own character, but +as the momentary representative of Othello's. +<span class="tei tei-q">“Indian”</span>—for I retain the old reading—means +American, a savage <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">in genere</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Finally, let me repeat that Othello does not kill +Desdemona in jealousy, but in a conviction forced +upon him by the almost superhuman art of Iago, +such a conviction as any man would and must +have entertained who had believed Iago's honesty +as Othello did. We, the audience, know that +Iago is a villain, from the beginning; but in considering +the essence of the Shakespearian Othello, +we must perseveringly place ourselves in his situation, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page257">[pg 257]</span><a name="Pg257" id="Pg257" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +and under his circumstances. Then we shall +immediately feel the fundamental difference between +the solemn agony of the noble Moor, and +the wretched fishing jealousies of Leontes, and the +morbid suspiciousness of Leonatus, who is, in other +respects, a fine character. Othello had no life but +in Desdemona:—the belief that she, his angel, had +fallen from the heaven of her native innocence, +wrought a civil war in his heart. She is his +counterpart; and, like him, is almost sanctified in +our eyes by her absolute unsuspiciousness, and +holy entireness of love. As the curtain drops, +which do we pity the most? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Extremum hunc</span></span>——. There are three +powers:—Wit, which discovers partial likeness +hidden in general diversity; subtlety, which discovers +the diversity concealed in general apparent +sameness;—and profundity, which discovers an +essential unity under all the semblances of +difference. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Give to a subtle man fancy, and he is a wit; to +a deep man imagination, and he is a philosopher. +Add, again, pleasurable sensibility in the threefold +form of sympathy with the interesting in morals, +the impressive in form, and the harmonious in +sound,—and you have the poet. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But combine all,—wit, subtlety, and fancy, with +profundity, imagination, and moral and physical +susceptibility of the pleasurable,—and let the +object of action be man universal; and we shall +have—O, rash prophecy! say, rather, we have—a +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Shakespeare</span></span>! +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page261">[pg 261]</span><a name="Pg261" id="Pg261" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> +<a name="toc81" id="toc81"></a> +<a name="pdf82" id="pdf82"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Notes on Ben Jonson.</span></h1> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It would be amusing to collect out of our dramatists +from Elizabeth to Charles I. proofs of +the manners of the times. One striking symptom +of general coarseness of manners, which may co-exist +with great refinement of morals, as, alas! +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">vice versa</span></span>, is to be seen in the very frequent allusions +to the olfactories with their most disgusting +stimulants, and these, too, in the conversation of +virtuous ladies. This would not appear so strange +to one who had been on terms of familiarity with +Sicilian and Italian women of rank: and bad as +they may, too many of them, actually be, yet I +doubt not that the extreme grossness of their +language has impressed many an Englishman of +the present era with far darker notions than the +same language would have produced in the mind +of one of Elizabeth's or James's courtiers. Those +who have read Shakespeare only, complain of +occasional grossness in his plays; but compare +him with his contemporaries, and the inevitable +conviction, is that of the exquisite purity of his +imagination. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The observation I have prefixed to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Volpone</span></span> +is the key to the faint interest which these noble +efforts of intellectual power excite, with the +exception of the fragment of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Sad Shepherd</span></span>; +because in that piece only is there any character +with whom you can morally sympathise. On the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page262">[pg 262]</span><a name="Pg262" id="Pg262" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +other hand, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Measure for Measure</span></span> is the only play +of Shakespeare's in which there are not some one +or more characters, generally many, whom you +follow with affectionate feeling. For I confess that +Isabella, of all Shakespeare's female characters, +pleases me the least; and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Measure for Measure</span></span> is, +indeed, the only one of his genuine works, which +is painful to me. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Let me not conclude this remark, however, +without a thankful acknowledgment to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">manes</span></span> +of Ben Jonson, that the more I study his writings, +I the more admire them; and the more my study +of him resembles that of an ancient classic, in the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">minutiæ</span></span> of his rhythm, metre, choice of words, +forms of connection, and so forth, the more +numerous have the points of my admiration +become. I may add, too, that both the study and +the admiration cannot but be disinterested, for to +expect therefrom any advantage to the present +drama would be ignorance. The latter is utterly +heterogeneous from the drama of the Shakespearian +age, with a diverse object and contrary principle. +The one was to present a model by imitation of +real life, taking from real life all that in it which +it ought to be, and supplying the rest;—the other +is to copy what is, and as it is,—at best a tolerable +but most frequently a blundering, copy. In the +former the difference was an essential element; in +the latter an involuntary defect. We should think +it strange, if a tale in dance were announced, and +the actors did not dance at all;—and yet such is +modern comedy. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page263">[pg 263]</span><a name="Pg263" id="Pg263" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc83" id="toc83"></a> +<a name="pdf84" id="pdf84"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Whalley's Preface.</span></h2> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">But Jonson was soon sensible, how inconsistent this medley of +names and manners was in reason and nature; and with how little +propriety it could ever have a place in a legitimate and just picture +of real life.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +But did Jonson reflect that the very essence of +a play, the very language in which it is +written, is a fiction to which all the parts must +conform? Surely, Greek manners in English +should be a still grosser improbability than a +Greek name transferred to English manners. Ben's +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">personæ</span></span> are too often not characters, but derangements;—the +hopeless patients of a mad-doctor +rather,—exhibitions of folly betraying itself in +spite of exciting reason and prudence. He not +poetically, but painfully exaggerates every trait; +that is, not by the drollery of the circumstance, +but by the excess of the originating feeling. +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">But to this we might reply, that far from being thought to +build his characters upon abstract ideas, he was really accused of +representing particular persons then existing; and that even those +characters which appear to be the most exaggerated, are said to +have had their respective archetypes in nature and life.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This degrades Jonson into a libeller, instead of +justifying him as a dramatic poet. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Non quod +verum est, sed quod verisimile</span></span>, is the dramatist's +rule. At all events, the poet who chooses transitory +manners, ought to content himself with transitory +praise. If his object be reputation, he ought +not to expect fame. The utmost he can look forwards +to, is to be quoted by, and to enliven the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page264">[pg 264]</span><a name="Pg264" id="Pg264" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +writings of, an antiquarian. Pistol, Nym, and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">id +genus omne</span></span>, do not please us as characters, but are +endured as fantastic creations, foils to the native +wit of Falstaff.—I say wit emphatically; for this +character so often extolled as the masterpiece of +humour, neither contains, nor was meant to contain, +any humour at all. +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc85" id="toc85"></a> +<a name="pdf86" id="pdf86"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Whalley's </span><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">‘</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Life Of Jonson.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">’</span></span><span style="font-size: 144%"> ”</span></span></h2> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">It is to the honour of Jonson's judgment, that </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">the greatest poet of +our nation</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> had the same opinion of Donne's genius and wit; and +hath preserved part of him from perishing, by putting his thoughts +and satire into modern verse.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Videlicet</span></span> Pope!— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">He said further to Drummond, Shakespeare wanted art, and +sometimes sense; for in one of his plays he brought in a number +of men, saying they had suffered shipwreck in Bohemia, where is +no sea near by a hundred miles.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I have often thought Shakespeare justified in +this seeming anachronism. In Pagan times +a single name of a German kingdom might well +be supposed to comprise a hundred miles more +than at present. The truth is, these notes of +Drummond's are more disgraceful to himself than +to Jonson. It would be easy to conjecture how +grossly Jonson must have been misunderstood, +and what he had said in jest, as of Hippocrates, +interpreted in earnest. But this is characteristic +of a Scotchman; he has no notion of a jest, unless +you tell him—<span class="tei tei-q">“This is a joke!”</span>—and still less of +that finer shade of feeling, the half-and-half, in +which Englishmen naturally delight. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page265">[pg 265]</span><a name="Pg265" id="Pg265" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc87" id="toc87"></a> +<a name="pdf88" id="pdf88"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Every Man Out Of His Humour.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Epilogue.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“The throat of war be stopt within her land,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">turtle-footed</span></em> peace dance fairie rings</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">About her court.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Turtle-footed”</span> is a pretty word, a very +pretty word: pray, what does it mean? +Doves, I presume, are not dancers; and the other +sort of turtle, land or sea, green-fat or hawksbill, +would, I should suppose, succeed better in slow +minuets than in the brisk rondillo. In one sense, +to be sure, pigeons and ring-doves could not dance +but with <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">éclat</span></span>—<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">a claw</span></span>! +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page266">[pg 266]</span><a name="Pg266" id="Pg266" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc89" id="toc89"></a> +<a name="pdf90" id="pdf90"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Poetaster.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Introduction.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Light! I salute thee, but with wounded nerves,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Wishing thy golden splendour pitchy darkness.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +There is no reason to suppose Satan's address +to the sun in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Paradise Lost</span></span>, more than a +mere coincidence with these lines; but were it +otherwise, it would be a fine instance what +usurious interest a great genius pays in borrowing. +It would not be difficult to give a detailed +psychological proof from these constant outbursts +of anxious self-assertion, that Jonson was not a +genius, a creative power. Subtract that one +thing, and you may safely accumulate on his +name all other excellences of a capacious, vigorous, +agile, and richly-stored intellect. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Ovid.</span></span> While slaves be false, fathers hard, +and bawds be</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">whorish.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The roughness noticed by Theobald and Whalley, +may be cured by a simple transposition:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“While fathers hard, slaves false, and bawds be whorish.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act. iv. sc. 3— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Crisp.</span></span> +O—oblatrant—furibund—fatuate—strenuous.</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">O—conscious.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It would form an interesting essay, or rather +series of essays, in a periodical work, were all the +attempts to ridicule new phrases brought together, +the proportion observed of words ridiculed which +have been adopted, and are now common, such as +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page267">[pg 267]</span><a name="Pg267" id="Pg267" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">strenuous</span></em>, <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">conscious</span></em>, &c., and a trial made how far +any grounds can be detected, so that one might +determine beforehand whether a word was invented +under the conditions of assimilability to +our language or not. Thus much is certain, that +the ridiculers were as often wrong as right; and +Shakespeare himself could not prevent the naturalisation +of <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">accommodation</span></em>, <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">remuneration</span></em>, &c.; or +Swift the gross abuse even of the word <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">idea</span></em>. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page268">[pg 268]</span><a name="Pg268" id="Pg268" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc91" id="toc91"></a> +<a name="pdf92" id="pdf92"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Fall Of Sejanus.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Arruntius.</span></span> The name Tiberius,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I hope, will keep, howe'er he hath foregone</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The dignity and power.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Silius.</span></span> Sure, while he lives.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Arr.</span></span> And dead, it comes to Drusus. Should he fail,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To the brave issue of Germanicus;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And they are three: too many (ha?) for him</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">To have a plot upon?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Sil.</span></span> I do not know</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The heart of his designs; but, sure, their face</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Looks farther than the present.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Arr.</span></span> By the gods,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">If I could guess he had but such a thought,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">My sword should cleave him down,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The anachronic mixture in this Arruntius of +the Roman republican, to whom Tiberius +must have appeared as much a tyrant as Sejanus, +with his James-and-Charles-the-First zeal for +legitimacy of descent in this passage, is amusing. +Of our great names Milton was, I think, the first +who could properly be called a republican. My +recollections of Buchanan's works are too faint to +enable me to judge whether the historian is not a +fair exception. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. Speech of Sejanus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Adultery! it is the lightest ill</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I will commit. A race of wicked acts</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Shall flow out of my anger, and o'erspread</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The world's wide face, which no posterity</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Shall e'er approve, nor yet keep silent,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The more we reflect and examine, examine and +reflect, the more astonished shall we be at the +immense superiority of Shakespeare over his contemporaries;—and +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page269">[pg 269]</span><a name="Pg269" id="Pg269" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +yet what contemporaries!—giant +minds indeed! Think of Jonson's erudition, +and the force of learned authority in that age; +and yet, in no genuine part of Shakespeare's works +is there to be found such an absurd rant and +ventriloquism as this, and too, too many other +passages ferruminated by Jonson from Seneca's +tragedies, and the writings of the later Romans. +I call it ventriloquism, because Sejanus is a +puppet, out of which the poet makes his own +voice appear to come. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. Scene of the sacrifice to Fortune. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This scene is unspeakably irrational. To believe, +and yet to scoff at, a present miracle is +little less than impossible. Sejanus should have +been made to suspect priestcraft and a secret +conspiracy against him. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page270">[pg 270]</span><a name="Pg270" id="Pg270" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc93" id="toc93"></a> +<a name="pdf94" id="pdf94"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Volpone.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This admirable, indeed, but yet more wonderful +than admirable, play is, from the fertility and +vigour of invention, character, language, and +sentiment, the strongest proof how impossible it is +to keep up any pleasurable interest in a tale, in +which there is no goodness of heart in any of the +prominent characters. After the third act, this +play becomes not a dead, but a painful, weight on +the feelings. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Zeluco</span></span> is an instance of the same +truth. Bonario and Celia should have been made +in some way or other principals in the plot; which +they might have been, and the objects of interest, +without having been made characters. In novels, +the person in whose fate you are most interested, +is often the least marked character of the whole. +If it were possible to lessen the paramountcy of +Volpone himself, a most delightful comedy might +be produced, by making Celia the ward or niece +of Corvino, instead of his wife, and Bonario her +lover. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page271">[pg 271]</span><a name="Pg271" id="Pg271" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc95" id="toc95"></a> +<a name="pdf96" id="pdf96"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Apicæne.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is to my feelings the most entertaining of +old Ben's comedies, and, more than any +other, would admit of being brought out anew, if +under the management of a judicious and stage-understanding +playwright; and an actor, who +had studied Morose, might make his fortune. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Clerimont's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He would have hang'd a pewterer's 'prentice once upon a Shrove</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Tuesday's riot, for being of that trade, when the rest were +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">quiet</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">The old copies read </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">quit</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">,—</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">i.e.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">, +discharged from working, and +gone to divert themselves.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—Whalley's note. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It should be <span class="tei tei-q">“quit”</span> no doubt, but not meaning +<span class="tei tei-q">“discharged from working,”</span> &c.—but quit, that +is, acquitted. The pewterer was at his holiday +diversion as well as the other apprentices, and +they as forward in the riot as he. But he alone +was punished under pretext of the riot, but in fact +for his trade. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Morose.</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> Cannot I, yet, find out a more compendious method +than by this </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">trunk</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">, to save my servants the labour of speech, and +mine ears the discord of sounds?</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What does <span class="tei tei-q">“trunk”</span> mean here, and in the first +scene of the first act? Is it a large ear-trumpet?—or +rather a tube, such as passes from parlour to +kitchen, instead of a bell? +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page272">[pg 272]</span><a name="Pg272" id="Pg272" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Whalley's note at the end:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Some critics of the last age imagined the character of Morose +to be wholly out of nature. But to vindicate our poet, Mr. Dryden +tells us from tradition, and we may venture to take his word, that +Jonson was really acquainted with a person of this whimsical turn +of mind: and as humour is a personal quality, the poet is acquitted +from the charge of exhibiting a monster, or an extravagant unnatural +</span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">caricatura</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +If Dryden had not made all additional proof +superfluous by his own plays, this very vindication +would evince that he had formed a false and +vulgar conception of the nature and conditions of +drama and dramatic personation. Ben Jonson +would himself have rejected such a plea:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For he knew, poet never credit gain'd</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">By writing <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">truths</span></em>, but things, like truths, +well feign'd.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +By <span class="tei tei-q">“truths”</span> he means <span class="tei tei-q">“facts.”</span> Caricatures are +not less so because they are found existing in real +life. Comedy demands characters, and leaves +caricatures to farce. The safest and the truest +defence of old Ben would be to call the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Epicœne</span></span> +the best of farces. The defect in Morose, as in +other of Jonson's <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dramatis personæ</span></span>, lies in this;—that +the accident is not a prominence growing out +of, and nourished by, the character which still +circulates in it; but that the character, such as it +is, rises out of, or, rather, consists in, the accident. +Shakespeare's comic personages have exquisitely +characteristic features; however awry, disproportionate, +and laughable they may be, still, like +Bardolph's nose, they are features. But Jonson's +are either a man with a huge wen, having a circulation +of its own, and which we might conceive +amputated, and the patient thereby losing all his +character; or they are mere wens themselves +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page273">[pg 273]</span><a name="Pg273" id="Pg273" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +instead of men,—wens personified, or with eyes, +nose, and mouth cut out, mandrake-fashion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Nota bene.</span></span>—All the above, and much more, +will have justly been said, if, and whenever, the +drama of Jonson is brought into comparisons of +rivalry with the Shakespearian. But this should +not be. Let its inferiority to the Shakespearian +be at once fairly owned,—but at the same time as +the inferiority of an altogether different <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">genius</span></span> of +the drama. On this ground, old Ben would still +maintain his proud height. He, no less than +Shakespeare stands on the summit of his hill, and +looks round him like a master,—though his be +Lattrig and Shakespeare's Skiddaw. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page274">[pg 274]</span><a name="Pg274" id="Pg274" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc97" id="toc97"></a> +<a name="pdf98" id="pdf98"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Alchemist.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 2. Face's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Will take his oath o' the Greek <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Xenophon</span></span>,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">If need be, in his pocket.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Another reading is <span class="tei tei-q">“Testament.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Probably, the meaning is—that intending +to give false evidence, he carried a Greek <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Xenophon</span></span> +to pass it off for a Greek Testament, and so +avoid perjury—as the Irish do, by contriving to +kiss their thumb-nails instead of the book. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 2. Mammon's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I will have all my beds blown up; not stuft:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Down is too hard.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Thus the air-cushions, though perhaps only +lately brought into use, were invented in idea in +the seventeenth century! +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page275">[pg 275]</span><a name="Pg275" id="Pg275" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc99" id="toc99"></a> +<a name="pdf100" id="pdf100"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Catiline's Conspiracy.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A fondness for judging one work by comparison +with others, perhaps altogether of a +different class, argues a vulgar taste. Yet it is +chiefly on this principle that the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Catiline</span></span> has been +rated so low. Take it and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Sejanus</span></span>, as compositions +of a particular kind, namely, as a mode of relating +great historical events in the liveliest and most +interesting manner, and I cannot help wishing +that we had whole volumes of such plays. We +might as rationally expect the excitement of the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Vicar of Wakefield</span></span> from Goldsmith's <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">History of +England</span></span>, as that of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Othello</span></span>, +&c., from the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Sejanus</span></span> or <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Catiline</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cat.</span></span> Sirrah, what ail you?</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">(<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">He spies one of his boys not +answer.</span></span>)</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Pag.</span></span> Nothing.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Best.</span></span> Somewhat modest.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cat.</span></span> Slave, I will strike your soul +out with my foot,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is either an unintelligible, or, in every +sense, a most unnatural, passage,—improbable, if +not impossible, at the moment of signing and +swearing such a conspiracy, to the most libidinous +satyr. The very presence of the boys is an outrage +to probability. I suspect that these lines down to +the words <span class="tei tei-q">“throat opens,”</span> should be removed back +so as to follow the words <span class="tei tei-q">“on this part of the +house,”</span> in the speech of Catiline soon after the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page276">[pg 276]</span><a name="Pg276" id="Pg276" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +entry of the conspirators. A total erasure, however, +would be the best, or, rather, the only +possible, amendment. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 2. Sempronia's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">...<span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He is but a new fellow,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">An <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">inmate</span></em> here in Rome, as Catiline calls him.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A <span class="tei tei-q">“lodger”</span> would have been a happier imitation +of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">inquilinus</span></span> of Sallust. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 6. Speech of Cethegus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Can these or such be any aids to us,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What a strange notion Ben must have formed +of a determined, remorseless, all-daring, foolhardiness, +to have represented it in such a +mouthing Tamburlane, and bombastic tonguebully +as this Cethegus of his! +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page277">[pg 277]</span><a name="Pg277" id="Pg277" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc101" id="toc101"></a> +<a name="pdf102" id="pdf102"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Bartholomew Fair.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Induction. Scrivener's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“If there be never a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">servant-monster</span></em> in the Fair, +who can help it</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">he says, nor a nest of antiques?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The best excuse that can be made for Jonson, +and in a somewhat less degree for Beaumont +and Fletcher, in respect of these base and silly +sneers at Shakespeare is, that his plays were +present to men's minds chiefly as acted. They +had not a neat edition of them, as we have, so as, +by comparing the one with the other, to form a +just notion of the mighty mind that produced the +whole. At all events, and in every point of view, +Jonson stands far higher in a moral light than +Beaumont and Fletcher. He was a fair contemporary, +and in his way, and as far as Shakespeare +is concerned, an original. But Beaumont and +Fletcher were always imitators of, and often +borrowers from him, and yet sneer at him with a +spite far more malignant than Jonson, who, +besides, has made noble compensation by his +praises. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 3.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Just.</span></span> I mean a child of the horn-thumb, +a babe <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">of booty</span></em>, boy, a</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">cut purse.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Does not this confirm, what the passage itself +cannot but suggest, the propriety of substituting +<span class="tei tei-q">“booty”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“beauty”</span> in Falstaff's speech, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Henry +IV.</span></span> part i. act i. sc. 2. <span class="tei tei-q">“Let not us, &c.?”</span> +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page278">[pg 278]</span><a name="Pg278" id="Pg278" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is not often that old Ben condescends to +imitate a modern author; but Master Dan. Knockhum +Jordan, and his vapours are manifest reflexes +of Nym and Pistol. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Quarl.</span></span> She'll make excellent geer for +the coachmakers here in</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Smithfield, to anoint wheels and axletrees with.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Good! but yet it falls short of the speech of a +Mr. Johnes, M.P., in the Common Council, on +the invasion intended by Buonaparte:—<span class="tei tei-q">“Houses +plundered—then burnt;—sons conscribed—wives +and daughters ravished,”</span> &c., &c.—<span class="tei tei-q">“But as for +you, you luxurious Aldermen! with your fat will +he grease the wheels of his triumphant chariot!”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cok.</span></span> Avoid in your satin doublet, Numps.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This reminds me of Shakespeare's <span class="tei tei-q">“Aroint thee, +witch!”</span> I find in several books of that age the +words <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">aloigne</span></span> and <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">eloigne</span></span>—that +is,—<span class="tei tei-q">“keep your +distance!”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“off with you!”</span> Perhaps <span class="tei tei-q">“aroint”</span> +was a corruption of <span class="tei tei-q">“aloigne”</span> by the vulgar. +The common etymology from <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">ronger</span></span> to gnaw +seems unsatisfactory. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Quarl.</span></span> How now, Numps! almost +tired in your protectorship?</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">overparted, overparted?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +An odd sort of propheticality in this Numps and +old Noll! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6. Knockhum's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“He eats with his eyes, as well as his teeth.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A good motto for the Parson in Hogarth's <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Election +Dinner</span></span>,—who shows how easily he might be +reconciled to the Church of Rome, for he worships +what he eats. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page279">[pg 279]</span><a name="Pg279" id="Pg279" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 5.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Pup.</span></span> <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Di.</span></span> It is not +profane.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lan.</span></span> It is not profane, he says.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Boy.</span></span> It is profane.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Pup.</span></span> It is not profane.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Boy.</span></span> It is profane.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Pup.</span></span> It is not profane.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Lan.</span></span> Well said, confute him with Not, +still.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +An imitation of the quarrel between Bacchus +and the Frogs in Aristophanes:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Χορός.</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">ἀλλὰ μὴν κεκραξόμεσθά γ',</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">ὁπόσον ἡ φάρυνξ ἂν ἡμῶν</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">χανδάνη δι' ἡμέρας,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">βρεκεκεκὲξ, κοὰξ, κοὰξ.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Διόνυσος.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">τούτω γὰρ οὐ νικήσετε.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Χορός.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">οὐδὲ μὴν ἡμᾶς σὺ τάντως.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Διόνυσος.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">οὐδὲ μὴν ὑμεῖς γε δή μ' οὐδέποτε.”</span></div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page280">[pg 280]</span><a name="Pg280" id="Pg280" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc103" id="toc103"></a> +<a name="pdf104" id="pdf104"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Devil Is An Ass.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Pug.</span></span> Why any: Fraud,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Or Covetousness, or lady Vanity,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Or old Iniquity, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">I'll call him hither</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">The words in italics should probably be given to the master-devil, +Satan.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—Whalley's note. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +That is, against all probability, and with a (for +Jonson) impossible violation of character. +The words plainly belong to Pug, and mark at +once his simpleness and his impatience. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4. Fitz-dottrel's soliloquy. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Compare this exquisite piece of sense, satire, and +sound philosophy in 1616 with Sir M. Hale's +speech from the bench in a trial of a witch many +years afterwards. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Meercraft's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Sir, money's a whore, a bawd, a drudge.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I doubt not that <span class="tei tei-q">“money”</span> was the first word of +the line, and has dropped out:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Money! Sir, money's a,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page281">[pg 281]</span><a name="Pg281" id="Pg281" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc105" id="toc105"></a> +<a name="pdf106" id="pdf106"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Staple Of News.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. Pecunia's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“No, he would ha' done,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That lay not in his power: he had the use</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Of your bodies, Band and Wax, and sometimes Statute's.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read (1815)— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 9.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“he had the use of</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Your bodies,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Now, however, I doubt the legitimacy of my +transposition of the <span class="tei tei-q">“of”</span> from the beginning +of this latter line to the end of the one preceding;—for +though it facilitates the metre and reading +of the latter line, and is frequent in Massinger, +this disjunction of the preposition from its case +seems to have been disallowed by Jonson. Perhaps +the better reading is— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“O' your bodies,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +the two syllables being slurred into one, or rather +snatched, or sucked, up into the emphasised +<span class="tei tei-q">“your.”</span> In all points of view, therefore, Ben's +judgment is just; for in this way, the line cannot +be read, as metre, without that strong and quick +emphasis on <span class="tei tei-q">“your”</span> which the sense requires;—and +had not the sense required an emphasis on +<span class="tei tei-q">“your,”</span> the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">tmesis</span></span> of the sign of its cases <span class="tei tei-q">“of,”</span> +<span class="tei tei-q">“to,”</span> &c., would destroy almost all boundary +between the dramatic verse and prose in comedy:—a +lesson not to be rash in conjectural amendments.—1818. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page282">[pg 282]</span><a name="Pg282" id="Pg282" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 4.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">P. jun.</span></span> I love all men of virtue, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">frommy</span></em> +Princess.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Frommy,”</span> <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">fromme</span></span>—pious, dutiful, &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act v. sc. 4. Penny-boy, sen., and Porter. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I dare not, will not, think that honest Ben had +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lear</span></span> in his mind in this mock mad scene. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page283">[pg 283]</span><a name="Pg283" id="Pg283" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc107" id="toc107"></a> +<a name="pdf108" id="pdf108"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The New Inn.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Host's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“A heavy purse, and then two turtles, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">makes</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Makes,”</span> frequent in old books, and even now +used in some counties for mates, or pairs. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Host's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">...<span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And for a leap</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Of the vaulting horse, to <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">play</span></em> the vaulting +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">house</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Instead of reading with Whalley <span class="tei tei-q">“ply”</span> for +<span class="tei tei-q">“play,”</span> I would suggest <span class="tei tei-q">“horse”</span> for <span class="tei tei-q">“house.”</span> +The meaning would then be obvious and pertinent. +The punlet, or pun-maggot, or pun intentional, +<span class="tei tei-q">“horse and house,”</span> is below Jonson. The <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">jeu-de-mots</span></span> +just below— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">...<span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Read a lecture</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Upon <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Aquinas</span></span> at St. Thomas à <span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Water</span></span>ings”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +had a learned smack in it to season its insipidity. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 6. Lovel's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Then shower'd his bounties on me, like the Hours,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That open-handed sit upon the clouds,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And press the liberality of heaven</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Down to the laps of thankful men!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Like many other similar passages in Jonson, +this is εῖδος χαλεπὸν ἰδεῖν—a sight which it is difficult +to make one's self see,—a picture my fancy +cannot copy detached from the words. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 5. Though it was hard upon old Ben, +yet Felton, it must be confessed, was in the right +in considering the Fly, Tipto, Bat Burst, &c., of +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page284">[pg 284]</span><a name="Pg284" id="Pg284" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +this play mere dotages. Such a scene as this was +enough to damn a new play; and Nick Stuff is +worse still,—most abominable stuff indeed! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 2. Lovel's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“So knowledge first begets benevolence,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Benevolence breeds friendship, friendship love.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Jonson has elsewhere proceeded thus far; but +the part most difficult and delicate, yet, perhaps, +not the least capable of being both morally and +poetically treated, is the union itself, and what, +even in this life, it can be. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page285">[pg 285]</span><a name="Pg285" id="Pg285" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> +<a name="toc109" id="toc109"></a> +<a name="pdf110" id="pdf110"></a> +<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Notes On Beaumont And Fletcher.</span></h1> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Seward's</span></span> Preface. 1750.— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">The </span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">King and No King</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">, too, is extremely spirited in all its +characters; Arbaces holds up a mirror to all men of virtuous +principles but violent passions. Hence he is, as it were, at once +magnanimity and pride, patience and fury, gentleness and rigour, +chastity and incest, and is one of the finest mixtures of virtues and +vices that any poet has drawn,</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +These are among the endless instances of the +abject state to which psychology had sunk +from the reign of Charles I. to the middle of the +present reign of George III.; and even now it is +but just awaking. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Seward's comparison of Julia's speech in +the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Two Gentlemen of Verona</span></span>, act iv. last scene— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Madam, 'twas Ariadne passioning,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +with Aspatia's speech in the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Maid's Tragedy</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I stand upon the sea-beach now,”</span> &c.—Act ii.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and preference of the latter. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is strange to take an incidental passage of one +writer, intended only for a subordinate part, and +compare it with the same thought in another +writer, who had chosen it for a prominent and +principal figure. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Seward's preference of Alphonso's poisoning +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page286">[pg 286]</span><a name="Pg286" id="Pg286" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">A Wife for a Month</span></span>, act i. sc. 1, to the passage +in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">King John</span></span>, act v. sc. 7:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Poison'd, ill fare! dead, forsook, cast off!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Mr. Seward! Mr. Seward! you may be, and I +trust you are, an angel; but you were an ass. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Every reader of </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">taste</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> will see how superior this is to the +quotation from Shakespeare.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Of what taste? +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Seward's classification of the plays. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Surely <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Monsieur Thomas</span></span>, the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Chances</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Beggar's +Bush</span></span>, and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Pilgrim</span></span>, should have been placed in +the very first class! But the whole attempt ends +in a woful failure. +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page287">[pg 287]</span><a name="Pg287" id="Pg287" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc111" id="toc111"></a> +<a name="pdf112" id="pdf112"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Harris's Commendatory Poem On Fletcher.</span></h2> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I'd have a state of wit convok'd, which hath</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">power</span></em> to take up on common faith:”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is an instance of that modifying of +quantity by emphasis, without which our +elder poets cannot be scanned. <span class="tei tei-q">“Power,”</span> here, +instead of being one long syllable—pow'r—must +be sounded, not indeed as a spondee, nor yet as a +trochee; but as - u u;—the first syllable is 1-1/4. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +We can, indeed, never expect an authentic +edition of our elder dramatic poets (for in those +times a drama was a poem), until some man undertakes +the work, who has studied the philosophy of +metre. This has been found the main torch of +sound restoration in the Greek dramatists by +Bentley, Porson, and their followers;—how much +more, then, in writers in our own language! It +is true that quantity, an almost iron law with the +Greek, is in English rather a subject for a peculiarly +fine ear, than any law or even rule; but, +then, instead of it, we have, first, accent; secondly, +emphasis; and lastly, retardation, and acceleration +of the times of syllables according to the meaning +of the words, the passion that accompanies them, +and even the character of the person that uses +them. With due attention to these,—above all, +to that, which requires the most attention and the +finest taste, the character, Massinger, for example, +might be reduced to a rich and yet regular metre. +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page288">[pg 288]</span><a name="Pg288" id="Pg288" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +But then the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">regulæ</span></span> must be first known; though +I will venture to say, that he who does not find a +line (not corrupted) of Massinger's flow to the time +total of a trimeter catalectic iambic verse, has not +read it aright. But by virtue of the last principle—the +retardation of acceleration of time—we +have the proceleusmatic foot u u u u, and the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">dispondæus</span></span> +- - - -, not to mention the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">choriambus</span></span>, the +ionics, pæons, and epitrites. Since Dryden, the +metre of our poets leads to the sense; in our elder +and more genuine bards, the sense, including the +passion, leads to the metre. Read even Donne's +satires as he meant them to be read, and as the +sense and passion demand, and you will find in the +lines a manly harmony. +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc113" id="toc113"></a> +<a name="pdf114" id="pdf114"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Life Of Fletcher In Stockdale's Edition, 1811.</span></h2> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">In general their plots are more regular than Shakespeare's.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This is true, if true at all, only before a court +of criticism, which judges one scheme by the +laws of another and a diverse one. Shakespeare's +plots have their own laws of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">regulæ</span></span>, and according +to these they are regular. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page289">[pg 289]</span><a name="Pg289" id="Pg289" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc115" id="toc115"></a> +<a name="pdf116" id="pdf116"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Maid's Tragedy.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. The metrical arrangement is most +slovenly throughout. +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Strat.</span></span> As well as masque can be,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and all that follows to <span class="tei tei-q">“who is return'd”</span>—is +plainly blank verse, and falls easily into it. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Melantius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“These soft and silken wars are not for me:</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The music must be shrill, and all confus'd,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That stirs my blood; and then I dance with arms.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What strange self-trumpeters and tongue-bullies +all the brave soldiers of Beaumont and Fletcher +are! Yet I am inclined to think it was the fashion +of the age from the Soldier's speech in the Counter +Scuffle; and deeper than the fashion B. and F. did +not fashion. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Lysippus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yes, but this lady</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Walks discontented, with her wat'ry eyes</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Bent on the earth,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Opulent as Shakespeare was, and of his opulence +prodigal, he yet would not have put this exquisite +piece of poetry in the mouth of a no-character, or +as addressed to a Melantius. I wish that B. and +F. had written poems instead of tragedies. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Mel.</span></span> I might run fiercely, not more +hastily,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Upon my foe.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I mĭght rūn <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">mŏre</span></em> fiērcelȳ, not more hastily.”</span></div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page290">[pg 290]</span><a name="Pg290" id="Pg290" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Calianax:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Office! I would I could put it off! I am sure I sweat quite +through my office!</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The syllable <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">off</span></span> reminds the testy statesman of +his robe, and he carries on the image. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Melantius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Would that blood,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That sea of blood, that I have lost in fight,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +All B. and F.'s generals are pugilists or cudgel-fighters, +that boast of their bottom and of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">claret</span></span> +they have shed. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> The Masque;—Cinthia's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“But I will give a greater state and glory,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And raise to time a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">noble</span></em> memory</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Of what these lovers are.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I suspect that <span class="tei tei-q">“nobler,”</span> pronounced as <span class="tei tei-q">“nobiler”</span> +- u -, was the poet's word, and that the accent is +to be placed on the penultimate of <span class="tei tei-q">“memory.”</span> As +to the passage— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yet, while our reign lasts, let us stretch our power,”</span> &c.—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +removed from the text of Cinthia's speech, by these +foolish editors as unworthy of B. and F.—the first +eight lines are not worse, and the last couplet +incomparably better, than the stanza retained. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. Amintor's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Oh, thou hast nam'd a word, that wipes away</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">All thoughts revengeful! In that sacred name,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">‘The king,’</span> there lies a terror.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is worth noticing that of the three greatest +tragedians, Massinger was a democrat, Beaumont +and Fletcher the most servile <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">jure divino</span></span> royalists, +and Shakespeare a philosopher;—if aught personal, +an aristocrat. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page291">[pg 291]</span><a name="Pg291" id="Pg291" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc117" id="toc117"></a> +<a name="pdf118" id="pdf118"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">A King And No King.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. Speech of Tigranes:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“She, that forgat the greatness of her grief</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">And miseries, that must follow such mad passions,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Endless and wild as women!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Seward's note and suggestion of <span class="tei tei-q">“in.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It would be amusing to learn from some +existing friend of Mr. Seward what he meant, or +rather dreamed, in this note. It is certainly a +difficult passage, of which there are two solutions;—one, +that the writer was somewhat more injudicious +than usual;—the other, that he was very, +very much more profound and Shakespearian than +usual. Seward's emendation, at all events, is right +and obvious. Were it a passage of Shakespeare, I +should not hesitate to interpret it as characteristic +of Tigranes' state of mind, disliking the very +virtues, and therefore half-consciously representing +them as mere products of the violence of the sex +in general in all their whims, and yet forced to +admire, and to feel and to express gratitude for, +the exertion in his own instance. The inconsistency +of the passage would be the consistency of the +author. But this is above Beaumont and Fletcher. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page292">[pg 292]</span><a name="Pg292" id="Pg292" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc119" id="toc119"></a> +<a name="pdf120" id="pdf120"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Scornful Lady.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. Sir Roger's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Did I for this consume my </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">quarters</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> in meditations, vows, and +woo'd her in heroical epistles? Did I expound the </span><span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">Owl</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">, +and undertake, +with labour and expense, the recollection of those thousand +pieces, consum'd in cellars and tobacco-shops, of that our honour'd +Englishman, Nic. Broughton?</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> &c. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Strange, that neither Mr. Theobald nor Mr. +Seward should have seen that this mock +heroic speech is in full-mouthed blank verse! +Had they seen this, they would have seen that +<span class="tei tei-q">“quarters”</span> is a substitution of the players for +<span class="tei tei-q">“quires”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“squares,”</span> (that is) of paper:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Consume my quires in meditations, vows,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And woo'd her in heroical epistles.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +They ought, likewise, to have seen that the +abbreviated <span class="tei tei-q">“Ni. Br.”</span> of the text was properly +<span class="tei tei-q">“Mi. Dr.”</span>—and that Michael Drayton, not +Nicholas Broughton, is here ridiculed for his +poem <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The Owl</span></span> and his <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Heroical Epistles</span></span>. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Younger Loveless:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Fill him some wine. Thou dost not see me mov'd,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +These Editors ought to have learnt, that scarce +an instance occurs in B. and F. of a long speech +not in metre. This is plain staring blank verse. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page293">[pg 293]</span><a name="Pg293" id="Pg293" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc121" id="toc121"></a> +<a name="pdf122" id="pdf122"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Custom Of The Country.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I cannot but think that in a country conquered +by a nobler race than the natives, and +in which the latter became villeins and bondsmen, +this custom, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">lex merchetæ</span></span>, may have been introduced +for wise purposes,—as of improving the +breed, lessening the antipathy of different races, +and producing a new bond of relationship between +the lord and the tenant, who, as the eldest born, +would at least have a chance of being, and a probability +of being thought, the lord's child. In +the West Indies it cannot have these effects, +because the mulatto is marked by nature different +from the father, and because there is no bond, no +law, no custom, but of mere debauchery.—1815. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Rutilio's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yet if you play not fair play,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Evidently to be transposed, and read thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Yet if you play not fair, above-board too,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I'll tell you what—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">I've a foolish engine here:—I say no more—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But if your Honour's guts are not enchanted.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Licentious as the comic metre of B. and F. is,—a +far more lawless, and yet far less happy, imitation +of the rhythm of animated talk in real life than +Massinger's—still it is made worse than it really +is by ignorance of the halves, thirds, and two-thirds +of a line which B. and F. adopted from the +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page294">[pg 294]</span><a name="Pg294" id="Pg294" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +Italian and Spanish dramatists. Thus, in Rutilio's +speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Though I confess</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Any man would desire to have her, and by any means,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Correct the whole passage,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Though I confess</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Any man would</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Desire to have her, and by any means,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">At any rate too, yet this common hangman</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That hath whipt off a thousănd măids heads already—</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">That he should glean the harvest, sticks in my stomach!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In all comic metres the gulping of short syllables, +and the abbreviation of syllables ordinarily long +by the rapid pronunciation of eagerness and vehemence, +are not so much a license as a law,—a +faithful copy of nature, and let them be read +characteristically, the times will be found nearly +equal. Thus, the three words marked above make +a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">choriambus</span></span> -- u u, +or perhaps a <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">pæon primus</span></span> - u u u; +a dactyl, by virtue of comic rapidity, +being only equal to an iambus when distinctly +pronounced. I have no doubt that all B. and F.'s +works might be safely corrected by attention to +this rule, and that the editor is entitled to transpositions +of all kinds, and to not a few omissions. +For the rule of the metre once lost—what was to +restrain the actors from interpolation? +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page295">[pg 295]</span><a name="Pg295" id="Pg295" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc123" id="toc123"></a> +<a name="pdf124" id="pdf124"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Elder Brother.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 2. Charles's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For what concerns tillage,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Who better can deliver it than Virgil</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">In his Georgicks? and to cure your herds,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">His Bucolicks is a master-piece.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Fletcher was too good a scholar to fall into +so gross a blunder, as Messrs. Sympson and +Colman suppose. I read the passage thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“For what concerns tillage,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Who better can deliver it than Virgil,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">In his Georgicks, <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">or</span></em> to cure your herds</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">(His Bucolicks are a master-piece); but when,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Jealous of Virgil's honour, he is afraid lest, by +referring to the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Georgics</span></span> alone, he might be understood +as undervaluing the preceding work. <span class="tei tei-q">“Not +that I do not admire the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Bucolics</span></span> too, in their +way.—But when,”</span> &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 3. Charles's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 8.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“She has a face looks like a +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">story</span></em>;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">The <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">story</span></em> of the heavens looks very like her.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Seward reads <span class="tei tei-q">“glory;”</span> and Theobald quotes from +Philaster:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“That reads the story of a woman's face.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I can make sense of this passage as little as Mr. +Seward;—the passage from Philaster is nothing +to the purpose. Instead of <span class="tei tei-q">“a story,”</span> I have +sometimes thought of proposing <span class="tei tei-q">“Astræa.”</span> +</p> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page296">[pg 296]</span><a name="Pg296" id="Pg296" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Angellina's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“You're old and dim, Sir,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And the shadow of the earth eclips'd your judgment.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Inappropriate to Angellina, but one of the finest +lines in our language. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 3. Charles's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And lets the serious part of life run by</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">As thin neglected sand, whiteness of name.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">You must be mine,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Seward's note, and reading:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 5.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Whiteness of name,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">You must be mine!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Nonsense! <span class="tei tei-q">“Whiteness of name”</span> is in apposition +to <span class="tei tei-q">“the serious part of life,”</span> and means a +deservedly pure reputation. The following line—<span class="tei tei-q">“You +<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">must</span></em> be mine!”</span> means—<span class="tei tei-q">“Though I do not +enjoy you to-day, I shall hereafter, and without +reproach.”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc125" id="toc125"></a> +<a name="pdf126" id="pdf126"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Spanish Curate.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 7. Amaranta's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“And still I push'd him on, as he had been <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">coming</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Perhaps the true word is <span class="tei tei-q">“conning,”</span>—that +is, learning, or reading, and therefore +inattentive. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page297">[pg 297]</span><a name="Pg297" id="Pg297" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc127" id="toc127"></a> +<a name="pdf128" id="pdf128"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Wit Without Money.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. Valentine's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“One without substance,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The present text, and that proposed by Seward, +are equally vile. I have endeavoured to +make the lines sense, though the whole is, I +suspect, incurable except by bold conjectural reformation. +I would read thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“One without substance of herself, that's woman;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Without the pleasure of her life, that's wanton;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Tho' she be young, forgetting it; tho' fair,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Making her glass the eyes of honest men,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Not her own admiration.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“That's wanton,”</span> or, <span class="tei tei-q">“that is to say, wantonness.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. Valentine's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Of half-a crown a week for pins and puppets.”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">As there is a syllable wanting in the measure here.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%">—Seward. +</span></div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +A syllable wanting! Had this Seward neither +ears nor fingers? The line is a more than usually +regular iambic hendecasyllable. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“With one man satisfied, with one rein guided;</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">With one faith, one content, one bed;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Aged</span></em>, she makes the wife, preserves the fame and issue;</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A widow is,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Is <span class="tei tei-q">“apaid”</span>—contented—too obsolete for B. and +F.? If not, we might read it thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Content with one faith, with one bed apaid,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">She makes the wife, preserves the fame and issue;”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page298">[pg 298]</span><a name="Pg298" id="Pg298" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Or, it may be,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“with one breed apaid”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +that is, satisfied with one set of children, in +opposition to,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“A widow is a Christmas-box,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Colman's note on Seward's attempt to put this +play into metre. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The editors, and their contemporaries in general, +were ignorant of any but the regular iambic verse. +A study of the Aristophanic and Plautine metres +would have enabled them to reduce B. and F. +throughout into metre, except where prose is +really intended. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page299">[pg 299]</span><a name="Pg299" id="Pg299" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc129" id="toc129"></a> +<a name="pdf130" id="pdf130"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Humorous Lieutenant.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Second Ambassador's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“When your angers,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Like</span></em> so many brother billows, rose together,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And, curling up <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">your</span></em> foaming crests, +defied,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This worse than superfluous <span class="tei tei-q">“like”</span> is very +like an interpolation of some matter of fact +critic—all <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">pus, prose atque venenum</span></span>. The <span class="tei tei-q">“your”</span> +in the next line, instead of <span class="tei tei-q">“their,”</span> is likewise +yours, Mr. Critic! +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Timon's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Another of a new <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">way</span></em> will be look'd at.”</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"> +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"> +<span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">We must suspect the poets wrote, </span><span class="tei tei-q"><span style="font-size: 90%">‘</span><span style="font-size: 90%">of a new </span><em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">day</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">’</span></span><span style="font-size: 90%"> +So immediately after,</span></span> +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 9.00em"><span style="font-size: 90%">... Time may</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">For all his wisdom, yet give us a day.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em"><span style="font-size: 90%"> +Seward's Note. +</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +For this very reason I more than suspect the +contrary. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> sc. 3. Speech of Leucippe:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I'll put her into action for a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">wastcoat</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What we call a riding-habit,—some mannish +dress. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page300">[pg 300]</span><a name="Pg300" id="Pg300" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc131" id="toc131"></a> +<a name="pdf132" id="pdf132"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Mad Lover.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. Masque of beasts:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This goodly tree,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">An usher that still grew before his lady,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Wither'd at root: this, for he could not woo,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">A grumbling lawyer:”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Here must have been omitted a line rhyming +to <span class="tei tei-q">“tree;”</span> and the words of the next line +have been transposed:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“This goodly tree,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Which leafless, and obscur'd with moss you see</span></em>,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">An usher this, that 'fore his lady grew,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Wither'd at root: this, for he could not woo,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page301">[pg 301]</span><a name="Pg301" id="Pg301" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc133" id="toc133"></a> +<a name="pdf134" id="pdf134"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Loyal Subject.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is well worthy of notice, and yet has not been, +I believe, noticed hitherto, what a marked +difference there exists in the dramatic writers of +the Elizabetho-Jacobæan age—(Mercy on me! +what a phrase for <span class="tei tei-q">“the writers during the reigns +of Elizabeth and James I.!”</span>)—in respect of their +political opinions. Shakespeare, in this, as in all +other things, himself and alone, gives the permanent +politics of human nature, and the only +predilection which appears, shows itself in his +contempt of mobs and the populacy. Massinger +is a decided Whig;—Beaumont and Fletcher high-flying, +passive-obedience, Tories. The Spanish +dramatists furnished them with this, as with +many other ingredients. By the by, an accurate +and familiar acquaintance with all the productions +of the Spanish stage previously to 1620, is an +indispensable qualification for an editor of B. and +F.;—and with this qualification a most interesting +and instructive edition might be given. This +edition of Colman's (Stockdale, 1811) is below +criticism. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In metre, B. and F. are inferior to Shakespeare, +on the one hand, as expressing the poetic part of +the drama, and to Massinger, on the other, in the +art of reconciling metre with the natural rhythm +of conversation,—in which, indeed, Massinger is +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page302">[pg 302]</span><a name="Pg302" id="Pg302" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +unrivalled. Read him aright, and measure by +time, not syllables, and no lines can be more legitimate,—none +in which the substitution of equipollent +feet, and the modifications by emphasis, +are managed with such exquisite judgment. B. +and F. are fond of the twelve syllable (not +Alexandrine) line, as:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Too many fears 'tis thought too: and to nourish those.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This has often a good effect, and is one of the +varieties most common in Shakespeare. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page303">[pg 303]</span><a name="Pg303" id="Pg303" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc135" id="toc135"></a> +<a name="pdf136" id="pdf136"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Rule A Wife And Have A Wife.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. Old Woman's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I fear he will knock my</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Brains out for lying.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Mr. Seward discards the words <span class="tei tei-q">“for lying,”</span> +because <span class="tei tei-q">“most of the things spoke of Estifania +are true, with only a little exaggeration, +and because they destroy all appearance of measure.”</span>—Colman's +note. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Mr. Seward had his brains out. The humour +lies in Estifania's having ordered the Old Woman +to tell these tales of her; for though an intriguer, +she is not represented as other than chaste; and +as to the metre, it is perfectly correct. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Marg.</span></span> As you love me, give way.</span></div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Leon.</span></span> It shall be better, I +will give none, madam,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The meaning is:—<span class="tei tei-q">“It shall be a better way, +first;—as it is, I will not give it, or any that you +in your present mood would wish.”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page304">[pg 304]</span><a name="Pg304" id="Pg304" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc137" id="toc137"></a> +<a name="pdf138" id="pdf138"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Laws Of Candy.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. Speech of Melitus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Whose insolence and never yet match'd pride</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Can by no character be well express'd,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">But in her only name, the proud Erota.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Colman's note. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The poet intended no allusion to the word +<span class="tei tei-q">“Erota”</span> itself; but says that her very name, +<span class="tei tei-q">“the proud Erota,”</span> became a character and adage;—as +we say, a Quixote or a Brutus: so to say an +<span class="tei tei-q">“Erota,”</span> expressed female pride and insolence of +beauty. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Speech of Antinous:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Of my peculiar honours, not deriv'd</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">From <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">successary</span></em>, but purchas'd with my blood.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The poet doubtless wrote <span class="tei tei-q">“successry,”</span> which, +though not adopted in our language, would be, on +many occasions, as here, a much more significant +phrase than ancestry. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page305">[pg 305]</span><a name="Pg305" id="Pg305" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc139" id="toc139"></a> +<a name="pdf140" id="pdf140"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Little French Lawyer.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1. Dinant's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Are you become a patron too? 'Tis a new one,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">No more on't,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Seward reads:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Are you become a patron too? <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">How long</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Have you been conning this speech?</span></em> 'Tis a new one,”</span> +&c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +If conjectural emendation like this be allowed, +we might venture to read:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Are you become a patron <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">to a new tune</span></em>?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +or,— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Are you become a patron? 'Tis a new <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">tune</span></em>.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Din.</span></span> Thou wouldst not willingly</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Live a protested coward, or be call'd one?</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Cler.</span></span> Words are but words.</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Din.</span></span> Nor wouldst thou take a blow?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Seward's note. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +O miserable! Dinant sees through Cleremont's +gravity, and the actor is to explain it. <span class="tei tei-q">“Words +are but words,”</span> is the last struggle of affected +morality. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page306">[pg 306]</span><a name="Pg306" id="Pg306" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc141" id="toc141"></a> +<a name="pdf142" id="pdf142"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Valentinian.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 3.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It is a real trial of charity to read this scene +with tolerable temper towards Fletcher. So +very slavish—so reptile—are the feelings and +sentiments represented as duties. And yet, remember, +he was a bishop's son, and the duty to +God was the supposed basis. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Personals, including body, house, home, and +religion;—property, subordination, and inter-community;—these +are the fundamentals of +society. I mean here, religion negatively taken,—so +that the person be not compelled to do or +utter, in relation of the soul to God, what would +be, in that person, a lie;—such as to force a man +to go to church, or to swear that he believes what +he does not believe. Religion, positively taken, +may be a great and useful privilege, but cannot +be a right,—were it for this only, that it cannot +be pre-defined. The ground of this distinction +between negative and positive religion, as a social +right, is plain. No one of my fellow-citizens is +encroached on by my not declaring to him what I +believe respecting the super-sensual; but should +every man be entitled to preach against the +preacher, who could hear any preacher? Now, +it is different in respect of loyalty. There we +have positive rights, but not negative rights;—for +every pretended negative would be in effect a +positive;—as if a soldier had a right to keep to +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page307">[pg 307]</span><a name="Pg307" id="Pg307" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +himself whether he would, or would not, fight. +Now, no one of these fundamentals can be rightfully +attacked, except when the guardian of it has +abused it to subvert one or more of the rest. The +reason is, that the guardian, as a fluent, is less +than the permanent which he is to guard. He is +the temporary and mutable mean, and derives his +whole value from the end. In short, as robbery +is not high treason, so neither is every unjust act +of a king the converse. All must be attacked and +endangered. Why? Because the king, as <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">a</span></span> to A, +is a mean to A, or subordination, in a far higher +sense than a proprietor, as <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">b</span></span> to A, is a mean to B, +or property. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 2. Claudia's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Chimney-pieces!”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The whole of this speech seems corrupt; and if +accurately printed,—that is, if the same in all the +prior editions,—irremediable but by bold conjecture. +<span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Till</span></em> my tackle,”</span> should be, I think, +<span class="tei tei-q">“<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">While</span></em>,”</span> &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iii. sc. 1. B. and F. always write as if +virtue or goodness were a sort of talisman, or +strange something, that might be lost without the +least fault on the part of the owner. In short, +their chaste ladies value their chastity as a material +thing,—not as an act or state of being; and +this mere thing being imaginary, no wonder that +all their women are represented with the minds of +strumpets, except a few irrational humourists, far +less capable of exciting our sympathy than a +Hindoo who has had a basin of cow-broth thrown +over him;—for this, though a debasing superstition, +is still real, and we might pity the poor +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page308">[pg 308]</span><a name="Pg308" id="Pg308" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +wretch, though we cannot help despising him. +But B. and F.'s Lucinas are clumsy fictions. It +is too plain that the authors had no one idea of +chastity as a virtue, but only such a conception as +a blind man might have of the power of seeing by +handling an ox's eye. In <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The Queen of Corinth</span></span>, +indeed, they talk differently; but it is all talk, +and nothing is real in it but the dread of losing a +reputation. Hence the frightful contrast between +their women (even those who are meant for virtuous) +and Shakespeare's. So, for instance, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The +Maid in the Mill</span></span>:—a woman must not merely have +grown old in brothels, but have chuckled over +every abomination committed in them with a +rampant sympathy of imagination, to have had +her fancy so drunk with the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">minutiæ</span></span> of lechery as +this icy chaste virgin evinces hers to have been. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It would be worth while to note how many of +these plays are founded on rapes,—how many on +incestuous passions, and how many on mere lunacies. +Then their virtuous women are either crazy +superstitions of a mere bodily negation of having +been acted on, or strumpets in their imaginations +and wishes, or, as in this <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Maid in the Mill</span></span>, both at +the same time. In the men, the love is merely +lust in one direction,—exclusive preference of one +object. The tyrant's speeches are mostly taken +from the mouths of indignant denouncers of the +tyrant's character, with the substitution of <span class="tei tei-q">“I”</span> +for <span class="tei tei-q">“he,”</span>" and the omission of the prefatory <span class="tei tei-q">“he +acts as if he thought”</span> so and so. The only feelings +they can possibly excite are disgust at the +Æciuses, if regarded as sane loyalists, or compassion +if considered as Bedlamites. So much for +their tragedies. But even their comedies are, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page309">[pg 309]</span><a name="Pg309" id="Pg309" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +most of them, disturbed by the fantasticalness, or +gross caricature, of the persons or incidents. There +are few characters that you can really like (even +though you should have erased from your mind +all the filth which bespatters the most likeable of +them, as Piniero in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The Island Princess</span></span> +for instance),—scarcely +one whom you can love. How +different this from Shakespeare, who makes one +have a sort of sneaking affection even for his +Barnardines;—whose very Iagos and Richards +are awful, and, by the counteracting power of +profound intellects, rendered fearful rather than +hateful;—and even the exceptions, as Goneril and +Regan, are proofs of superlative judgment and the +finest moral tact, in being left utter monsters, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">nulla virtute redemptæ</span></span>, and in being kept out of +sight as much as possible,—they being, indeed, +only means for the excitement and deepening of +noblest emotions towards the Lear, Cordelia, &c. +and employed with the severest economy! But +even Shakespeare's grossness—that which is really +so, independently of the increase in modern times +of vicious associations with things indifferent (for +there is a state of manners conceivable so pure, +that the language of Hamlet at Ophelia's feet +might be a harmless rallying, or playful teazing, +of a shame that would exist in Paradise)—at the +worst, how diverse in kind is it from Beaumont +and Fletcher's! In Shakespeare it is the mere +generalities of sex, mere words for the most +part, seldom or never distinct images, all head-work, +and fancy drolleries; there is no sensation +supposed in the speaker. I need not proceed to +contrast this with B. and F. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page310">[pg 310]</span><a name="Pg310" id="Pg310" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc143" id="toc143"></a> +<a name="pdf144" id="pdf144"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Rollo.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This, perhaps, the most energetic of Fletcher's +tragedies. He evidently aimed at a new +Richard III. in Rollo;—but, as in all his other +imitations of Shakespeare, he was not philosopher +enough to bottom his original. Thus, in Rollo, he +has produced a mere personification of outrageous +wickedness, with no fundamental characteristic +impulses to make either the tyrant's words or +actions philosophically intelligible. Hence the +most pathetic situations border on the horrible, +and what he meant for the terrible, is either +hateful, τὸ μισητὸν, or ludicrous. The scene of +Baldwin's sentence in the third act is probably +the grandest working of passion in all B. and F.'s +dramas;—but the very magnificence of filial affection +given to Edith, in this noble scene, renders +the after scene (in imitation of one of the least +Shakespearian of all Shakespeare's works, if it be +his, the scene between Richard and Lady Anne) +in which Edith is yielding to a few words and +tears, not only unnatural, but disgusting. In +Shakespeare, Lady Anne is described as a weak, +vain, very woman throughout. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Gis.</span></span> He is indeed the perfect character</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Of a good man, and so his actions speak him.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This character of Aubrey, and the whole spirit +of this and several other plays of the same authors, +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page311">[pg 311]</span><a name="Pg311" id="Pg311" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +are interesting as traits of the morals which it was +fashionable to teach in the reigns of James I. and +his successor, who died a martyr to them. Stage, +pulpit, law, fashion,—all conspired to enslave the +realm. Massinger's plays breathe the opposite +spirit; Shakespeare's the spirit of wisdom which is +for all ages. By the by, the Spanish dramatists—Calderon, +in particular,—had some influence in +this respect, of romantic loyalty to the greatest +monsters, as well as in the busy intrigues of B. +and F.'s plays. +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc145" id="toc145"></a> +<a name="pdf146" id="pdf146"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Wildgoose Chase.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1. Belleur's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“That wench, methinks,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">If I were but well set on, for she is a <em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">fable</span></em>,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">If I were but hounded right, and one to teach me.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Sympson reads <span class="tei tei-q">“affable,”</span> which Colman rejects, +and says, <span class="tei tei-q">“the next line seems to +enforce”</span> the reading in the text. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Pity, that the editor did not explain wherein +the sense, <span class="tei tei-q">“seemingly enforced by the next line,”</span> +consists. May the true word be <span class="tei tei-q">“a sable”</span>—that +is, a black fox, hunted for its precious fur? +Or <span class="tei tei-q">“at-able,”</span>—as we now say,—<span class="tei tei-q">“she is come-at-able?”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page312">[pg 312]</span><a name="Pg312" id="Pg312" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc147" id="toc147"></a> +<a name="pdf148" id="pdf148"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">A Wife For A Month.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 1. Alphonso's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Betwixt the cold bear and the raging lion</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Lies my safe way.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Seward's note and alteration to— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“'Twixt the cold bears, far from the raging lion”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This Mr. Seward is a blockhead of the provoking +species. In his itch for correction, he +forgot the words—<span class="tei tei-q">“lies my safe way!”</span> The bear +is the extreme pole, and thither he would travel +over the space contained between it and <span class="tei tei-q">“the +raging lion.”</span> +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc149" id="toc149"></a> +<a name="pdf150" id="pdf150"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Pilgrim.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act iv. sc. 2.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Alinda's interview with her father is lively, +and happily hit off; but this scene with +Roderigo is truly excellent. Altogether, indeed, +this play holds the first place in B. and F.'s +romantic entertainments, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Lustspiele</span></span>, which collectively +are their happiest performances, and are +only inferior to the romance of Shakespeare in the +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">As You Like It</span></span>, <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Twelfth Night</span></span>, &c. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span>— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<span class="tei tei-hi" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Alin.</span></span> To-day you shall wed Sorrow,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And Repentance will come to-morrow.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read <span class="tei tei-q">“Penitence,”</span> or else— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Repentance, she will come to-morrow.”</span></div> +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page313">[pg 313]</span><a name="Pg313" id="Pg313" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc151" id="toc151"></a> +<a name="pdf152" id="pdf152"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Queen Of Corinth.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. sc. 1.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Merione's speech. Had the scene of this +tragi-comedy been laid in Hindostan instead +of Corinth, and the gods here addressed been the +Vishnu and Co. of the Indian Pantheon, this rant +would not have been much amiss. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In respect of style and versification, this play and +the following of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Bonduca</span></span> may be taken as the best, +and yet as characteristic, specimens of Beaumont +and Fletcher's dramas. I particularly instance +the first scene of the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Bonduca</span></span>. Take Shakespeare's +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Richard II.</span></span>, and having selected some one scene of +about the same number of lines, and consisting +mostly of long speeches, compare it with the first +scene in <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Bonduca</span></span>,—not for the idle purpose of +finding out which is the better, but in order to see +and understand the difference. The latter, that of +B. and F., you will find a well-arranged bed of +flowers, each having its separate root, and its +position determined aforehand by the will of the +gardener,—each fresh plant a fresh volition. In +the former you see an Indian fig-tree, as described +by Milton;—all is growth, evolution;—each +line, each word almost, begets the following, +and the will of the writer is an interfusion, a +continuous agency, and not a series of separate +acts. Shakespeare is the height, breadth, and +depth of Genius: Beaumont and Fletcher the +excellent mechanism, in juxta-position and succession, +of talent. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page314">[pg 314]</span><a name="Pg314" id="Pg314" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc153" id="toc153"></a> +<a name="pdf154" id="pdf154"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Noble Gentleman.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Why have the dramatists of the times of +Elizabeth, James I., and the first Charles +become almost obsolete, with the exception of +Shakespeare? Why do they no longer belong to +the English, being once so popular? And why is +Shakespeare an exception?—One thing, among +fifty, necessary to the full solution is, that they all +employed poetry and poetic diction on unpoetic +subjects, both characters and situations, especially +in their comedy. Now Shakespeare is all, all ideal,—of +no time, and therefore for all times. Read, +for instance, Marine's panegyric in the first scene +of this play:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Know</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The eminent court, to them that can be wise,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">And fasten on her blessings, is a sun,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +What can be more unnatural and inappropriate +(not only is, but must be felt as such) than such +poetry in the mouth of a silly dupe? In short, +the scenes are mock dialogues, in which the poet +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">solus</span></span> plays the ventriloquist, but cannot keep down +his own way of expressing himself. Heavy complaints +have been made respecting the transposing +of the old plays by Cibber; but it never occurred +to these critics to ask, how it came that no one +ever attempted to transpose a comedy of Shakespeare's. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page315">[pg 315]</span><a name="Pg315" id="Pg315" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc155" id="toc155"></a> +<a name="pdf156" id="pdf156"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Coronation.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. Speech of Seleucus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Altho' he be my enemy, should any</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Of the gay flies that buz about the court,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Sit</span></em> to catch trouts i' the summer, tell me so,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I durst,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Colman's note. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Pshaw! <span class="tei tei-q">“Sit”</span> is either a misprint for <span class="tei tei-q">“set,”</span> +or the old and still provincial word for <span class="tei tei-q">“set,”</span> +as the participle passive of <span class="tei tei-q">“seat”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“set.”</span> I +have heard an old Somersetshire gardener say:—<span class="tei tei-q">“Look, +Sir! I set these plants here; those yonder +I <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">sit</span></em> yesterday.”</span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. Speech of Arcadius:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Nay, some will swear they love their mistress,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Would hazard lives and fortunes,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Nay, some will swear they love their mistress so,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">They would hazard lives and fortunes to preserve</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">One of her hairs brighter than Berenice's,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Or young Apollo's; and yet, after this,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-q">“Thĕy woŭld hāzard”</span>—furnishes an anapæst for +an <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">iambus</span></span>. <span class="tei tei-q">“And yet,”</span> which must be read, +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">anyĕt</span></span>, is an instance of the enclitic force in an +accented monosyllable. <span class="tei tei-q">“And yēt,”</span> is a complete +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">iambus</span></span>; but <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">anyet</span></span> is, +like <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">spirit</span></span>, a dibrach u u, +trocheized, however, by the <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">arsis</span></span> or first accent +damping, though not extinguishing, the second. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page316">[pg 316]</span><a name="Pg316" id="Pg316" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc157" id="toc157"></a> +<a name="pdf158" id="pdf158"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">Wit At Several Weapons.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. Oldcraft's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“I'm arm'd at all points,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +It would be very easy to restore all this passage +to metre, by supplying a sentence of four +syllables, which the reasoning almost demands, +and by correcting the grammar. Read thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Arm'd at all points 'gainst treachery, I hold</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">My humour firm. If, living, I can see thee</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Thrive by thy wits, I shall have the more courage,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Dying, to trust thee with my lands. If not,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">The best wit, I can hear of, carries them.</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">For since so many in my time and knowledge,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Rich children of the city, have concluded</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">For lack of wit</span></em> in beggary, I'd rather</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Make a wise stranger my executor,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">Than a fool son my heir, and have my lands call'd</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">After my wit than name: and that's my nature!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Oldcraft's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“To prevent which I have sought out a match for her.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Which to prevent I've sought a match out for her.”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Ib.</span></span> Sir Gregory's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">Do you think</span></em></span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">I'll have any of the wits hang upon me after I am married once?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Read it thus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Do you think</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That I'll have any of the wits to hang</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Upon me after I am married once?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +and afterwards— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 9.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Is it a fashion in London</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">To marry a woman, and to never see her?”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The superfluous <span class="tei tei-q">“to”</span> gives it the Sir Andrew +Ague-cheek character. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page317">[pg 317]</span><a name="Pg317" id="Pg317" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc159" id="toc159"></a> +<a name="pdf160" id="pdf160"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Fair Maid Of The Inn.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act ii. Speech of Albertus:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“But, Sir,</span></div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">By my life, I vow to take assurance from you,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left">That right hand never more shall strike my son,</div> +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Chop his hand off!”</span></div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +In this (as, indeed, in all other respects, but +most in this) it is that Shakespeare is so incomparably +superior to Fletcher and his friend,—in +judgment! What can be conceived more unnatural +and motiveless than this brutal resolve? +How is it possible to feel the least interest in +Albertus afterwards? or in Cesario after his +conduct? +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc161" id="toc161"></a> +<a name="pdf162" id="pdf162"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Two Noble Kinsmen.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +On comparing the prison scene of <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Palamon and +Arcite</span></span>, act ii. sc. 2, with the dialogue between +the same speakers, act i. sc. 2, I can +scarcely retain a doubt as to the first act's having +been written by Shakespeare. Assuredly it was +not written by B. and F. I hold Jonson more +probable than either of these two. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +The main presumption, however, for Shakespeare's +share in this play rests on a point, to +which the sturdy critics of this edition (and indeed +all before them) were blind,—that is, the construction +of the blank verse, which proves beyond all +doubt an intentional imitation, if not the proper +hand, of Shakespeare. Now, whatever improbability +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page318">[pg 318]</span><a name="Pg318" id="Pg318" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> +there is in the former (which supposes +Fletcher conscious of the inferiority, the too +poematic <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">minus</span></span>-dramatic nature of his versification, +and of which, there is neither proof nor likelihood) +adds so much to the probability of the +latter. On the other hand, the harshness of +many of these very passages, a harshness unrelieved +by any lyrical inter-breathings, and still +more the want of profundity in the thoughts, keep +me from an absolute decision. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 3. Emilia's speech:— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 10.00em">... <span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“Since his depart, his +<em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-style: italic">sports</span></em></span>,</div> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">Tho' craving seriousness and skill,”</span> &c.</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +I conjecture <span class="tei tei-q">“imports,”</span>—that is, duties or offices +of importance. The flow of the versification in +this speech seems to demand the trochaic ending - u; +while the text blends jingle and <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">hisses</span></em> to +the annoyance of less sensitive ears than Fletcher's—not +to say, Shakespeare's. +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<a name="toc163" id="toc163"></a> +<a name="pdf164" id="pdf164"></a> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 144%">“</span><span style="font-size: 144%">The Woman Hater.</span><span style="font-size: 144%">”</span></span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +Act i. sc. 2.— +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +This scene from the beginning is prose printed +as blank verse, down to the line— +</p> + +<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> +<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left">“E'en all the valiant stomachs in the court”</span>—</div> +</div> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +where the verse recommences. This transition +from the prose to the verse enhances, and indeed +forms the comic effect. Lazarillo concludes his +soliloquy with a hymn to the goddess of plenty. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +THE END. +</p> + +</div> + +<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page319">[pg 319]</span><a name="Pg319" id="Pg319" class="tei tei-anchor"></a> + +<div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"> +<h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Advertisement.</span></h2> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">NEW EDITION, REVISED.</span></span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +AIDS TO REFLECTION +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">In the Formation of a Manly Character, on the several +grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion.</span></span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">By</span></span> S. T. COLERIDGE. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">With a copious Index to the Work, and Translations of +the Greek and Latin Quotations.</span></span> +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-variant: small-caps">By</span></span> THOMAS FENBY. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +400 pp. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Fscp. 8vo, cloth extra</span></span>, 3/6. +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +EDWARD HOWELL, PUBLISHER, LIVERPOOL +</p> + +<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em"> +MDCCCLXXIV. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +</div> +<hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-back" style="margin-bottom: 2.00em; margin-top: 6.00em"> + <hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em"> + <div id="pgfooter" class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 4.00em; margin-top: 4.00em"><pre class="pre tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em">***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE, BEN JONSON, BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER*** +</pre><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader165" id="rightpageheader165"></a><a name="pgtoc166" id="pgtoc166"></a><a name="pdf167" id="pdf167"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Credits</span></h1><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr><th class="tei tei-label tei-label-gloss">May 24, 2008 </th></tr><tr><td class="tei tei-item"><table summary="This is a list." class="tei tei-list" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"><tbody><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item">Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</td></tr><tr class="tei tei-labelitem"><th class="tei tei-label"></th><td class="tei tei-item"><span class="tei tei-respStmt"> + <span class="tei tei-name"> + Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + (This file was made using scans of public domain works from the + University of Mochigan Digital Libraries.) + Page-images available at + <http://www.pgdp.net/projects/projectID44006ca6acbb7/> + </span> + </span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><hr class="doublepage" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 3.00em; margin-top: 3.00em"><a name="rightpageheader168" id="rightpageheader168"></a><a name="pgtoc169" id="pgtoc169"></a><a name="pdf170" id="pdf170"></a><h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h1><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This file should be named + 25585-h.html or + 25585-h.zip.</p><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">This and all associated files of various formats will be found + in: + + <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/5/8/25585/" class="block tei tei-xref" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">http://www.gutenberg.org</span><span style="font-size: 90%">/dirs/2/5/5/8/25585/</span></a></p><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Updated editions will replace the previous one — the old + editions will be renamed.</p><p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">Creating the works from public domain print editions means that + no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the + Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United + States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. + Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this + license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works + to protect the Project Gutenberg™ concept and trademark. 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