Figurative expreffion is the work of an enlivened imagination, and for that reason cannot be the language of anguish or distress. A scene of this kind is painted by Otway in colours finely adapted to the subject. There is scarce a figure in it, except a short and natural fimile with which the fpeech is introduced. Belvidera talking to her father of her hufband: Think you faw what pafs'd at our last parting; For he yet lov'd, and that dear love preferv'd me I fear not death, but cannot bear a thought VOL. II. Fly Fly to the fenate, fave the promis'd lives Of his dear friends, ere mine be made the facrifice. Venice preferv'd, alt 5. resemblance betwixt To preserve this words and their meaning, the sentiments of active and hurrying paffions ought to be dreffed in words where fyllables prevail that are pronounced fhort or faft; for these make an impreffion of hurry and precipitation. Emotions, on the other hand, that reft upon their objects, are beft expreffed by words where fyllables prevail that are pronounced long or flow. A person affected with melancholy has a languid and flow train of perceptions. The expreffion beft suited to this state of mind, is where words not only of long but of many fyllables abound in the compofition. For that reafon, nothing can be finer than the following paffage: In those deep folitudes, and awful cells, Pope, Eloifa to Abelard. To preferve the fame resemblance, another circumstance circumstance is requifite, that the language conformable to the emotion, be rough or fmooth, broken or uniform. Calm and fweet emotions are beft expreffed by words that glide foftly; furprise, fear, and other turbulent paffions, require an expreffion both rough and broken. It cannot have escaped any diligent inquirer into nature, that in the hurry of paffion, one generally expreffes that thing first which is most at heart. This is beautifully done in the following paffage. Me, me; adfum qui feci: in me convertite ferrum, Paffion has often the effect of redoubling words, the better to make them express the ftrong conception of the mind. This is finely reprefented in the following examples: -Thou fun, faid I, fair light! And thou enlighten'd earth, fo fresh and gay! Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains! And ye that live, and move, fair creatures! tell Г Tell, if ye faw, how came I thus, how here.- Both have finn'd! but thou Against God only; I, 'gainft God and thee: Paradife Loft, book x. 930. Shakespear is fuperior to all other writers in delineating paffion. It is difficult to fay in what part he most excels, whether in moulding every paffion to peculiarity of character, in discovering the fentiments that proceed from various tones of passion, or in expreffing properly every different fentiment. He imposes not upon his reader, general declamation and the falfe coin of unmeaning words, which the bulk of writers deal in. His fentiments are adjusted, with the greateft propriety, to the peculiar character and circumstances of the speaker; and the propriety is not lefs perfect betwixt his fentiments and his diction. That this is no exaggeration, aggeration, will be evident to every one of tafte, upon comparing Shakespear with other writers, in fimilar paffages. If upon any occafion he fall below himself, is in those scenes where paffion enters not. By endeavouring in this cafe to raise his dialogue above the style of ordinary conversation, he sometimes deviates into intricate thought and obfcure expreffion*. Sometimes, to * Of this take the following fpecimen : They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrafe From our atchievements, though perform'd at height, So, oft it chances in particular men, That for fome vicious mole of nature in them, Shall in the general cenfure take corruption Hamlet, aft 1. fc. 7. throw |