Far heavier load thyfelf expect to feel The concluding epithet forms a grand and delightful image, which cannot be the genuine offspring of rage. Fourth. Sentiments too artificial for a ferious paffion. I give for the first example a speech of Piercy expiring: Ó, Harry, thou haft robb'd me of my growth: Than those proud titles thou hast won of me; They wound my thoughts, worfe than thy fword my flesh. But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; And time, that takes furvey of all the world, Must have a stop. First part, Henry IV. a&t 5. Sc. 9. Livy inferts the following paffage in a plaintive oration of the Locrenfes accufing Pleminius the Roman legate of oppreffion. Z 2 "In "In hoc legato veftro, nec hominis quic quam eft, Patres Confcripti, præter figu"ram et fpeciem; neque Romani civis, "præter habitum veftitumque, et fonum lingua Latina. Peftis et bellua imma nis, quales fretum, quondam, quo ab "Sicilia dividimur, ad perniciem navigan"tium circumfediffe, fabulæ ferunt *." Congreve shows a fine tafte in the fentiments of the Mourning Bride. But in the following paffage the picture is too artful to be fuggefted by fevere grief: Almeria. O no! Time gives increase to my flictions. af The circling hours, that gather all the woes They fhake their downy wings, and scatter all Titus Livius, 1. 29. § 17. At 1. fc. 1. In the fame play, Almeria feeing a dead body, which she took to be Alphonfo's, expreffes fentiments ftrained and artificial, which nature fuggefts not to any perfon upon fuch an occafion: Had they, or hearts, or eyes, that did this deed? Could eyes endure to guide fuch cruel hands? Are not my eyes guilty alike with theirs, That thus can gaze, and yet not turn to stone? -I do not weep! The fprings of tears are dry'd, And of a fudden I am calm, as if All things were well; and yet my husband's mur der'd! Yes, yes, I know to mourn! I'll fluice this heart, Lady Trueman. How could you be fo cruel to defer giving me that joy which you knew I muft receive from your prefence? You have robb'd my life of fome hours of happiness that ought to have been in it. Drummer, at 5. Pope's Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady, expreffes delicately the most tender concern and forrow for the deplorable fate fate of a perfon of worth. A poem of this kind, deeply serious and pathetic, rejects all fiction with difdain. We therefore can give no quarter to the following paffage, which is eminently discordant with the subject. It is not the language of the heart, but of the imagination indulging its flights at eafe. It would be a ftill more fevere cenfure, if it should be ascribed to imitation, copying indiscreetly what has been said by others. What though no weeping loves thy afhes grace, Fifth. Fanciful or finical fentiments, fentiments that degenerate into point or conceit, however they may amufe in an idle hour, can never be the offspring of any ferious or important paffion. In the Ierufalem of of Taffo, Tancred, after a fingle combat, fpent with fatigue and lofs of blood, falls into a fwoon. In this fituation, understood to be dead, he is difcovered by Erminia, who was in love with him to distraction. A more happy fituation cannot be imagined, to raise grief in an instant to its highest pitch; and yet, in venting her forrow, fhe defcends most abominably to antithefis and conceit, even of the loweft kind. E in lui versò d' inefficabil vena E trovando ti perdo eternamente. Cant. 19. ft. 105, Armida's lamentation refpecting her lover Rinaldo, is in the fame vitious taste. Queen. Give me no help in lamentation, I am not barren to bring forth complaints: Canto 20. ftan. 124. 125. & 126. All |