For lifting food to't? But I'll punish home No, v way madness lies; let me fhun thatiny No more of that. Kent, Good, my Lord, enter here. Lear. Pr'ythee, go in thy thyfelf, feek thine own ease, - This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder" V get thee in; How fhall your houseless heads and unfed fides, i That thou may'st shake the fuperflux to them, King Lear, act 3. To illustrate the foregoing doctrine, one other inftance of the fame kind may fuffice, brudd aids 1952 blanda susom min u expreffing Othello. Lo! I have a weapon: Upon a foldier's thigh. I've seen the day, Who can controul his fate? 'tis not fo now. The very Do you go Man but a rush against Othello's breast, i wench! Pale as thy smoke! when we shall meet at compt, From the poffeffion of this heav'nly fight; Oh, Oh, Desdemona! Defdemona! dead! dead! oh, oh! Othello, at 5. fc. 9. The fentiments here difplay'd flow fo naturally from the paffions represented, and are fuch genuine expreffions of these pasfions, that it is not poffible to conceive any imitation more perfect. With regard to the French author, truth obliges me to acknowledge, that he describes in the style of a spectator, instead of expreffing paffion like one who feels it; and alfo that he is thereby betray'd into the other faults above mentioned, a tiresome monotony, and a pompous declamatory style*. It is fcarce neceffary to pro duce This criticifm reaches the French dramatic writers in general, with very few exceptions. Their tragedies are moftly, if not totally, defcriptive. Corneille led the way; and later writers following his track, have accustomed the French ear to a ftyle, formal, pompous, declamatory, which fuits not with any paffion. Hence it becomes an easy task to burlesk a French tragedy: it is not more difficult than to burlesk a stiff folemn fop. The facility of the operation has in Paris .ntroduced a fingular amusement, which is, to burlesk the duce particular inftances; for he never va→ ries from this tone. I fhall however take two paffages at a venture, in order to be confronted bra Nobat ара the more fuccessful tragedies in a fort of farce, called a pa rody La Motte, who himself appears to have been forely galled by fome of thefe burlefk compofitions, acknowledges, that no more is necessary to give them a run, than barely to vary the dramatis perfone, and in place of kings and heroes, queens and princeffes, to fubftitute tinkers and tailors, milk maids and feamftreffes. The declamatory ftyle, fo different from the genuine expreffion of paffion, paffes in fome meafure unobferved, when great perfonages are the fpeakers. But in the mouths of the vulgar, the impropriety, with regard to the speaker as well as to the paffion reprefented, is fo remarkable as to become ridiculous. A tragedy, where every paffion is made to fpeak in its natural tone, is not liable to be thus burlefked. The fame paffion is by all men expressed nearly in the same manner: and therefore the genuine expreffions of paffion cannot be ridiculous in the mouth of any man, provided only he be of fuch a character as to be fufceptible of the paffion. val bas lleg It is a well-known fact, that to an English ear the French actors appear to pronounce with too great rapidity; a complaint much infifted on by Cibber in particular, who had frequently heard the famous Baron upon the French stage. This may in some measure be attributed to our want of facility in the French language; as foreigners generally imagine, that every language is pronounced too quick by natives. But that it is not the fole caufe, will be probable from a fact directly oppofite, that the French are not a little difgufted with the languidnefs, as they term it, of the English pronunciation. I 11. I conjecture 1 confronted with thofe tranfcribed above. In the tragedy of Cinna, Emilia, after the confpiracy was difcovered, having nothing in view but racks and death to herself and her lover, receives a pardon from Auguftus, attended with the brightest circumstances of magnanimity and tendernefs. This is a happy fituation for reprefenting the paffions of furprise and gratitude in their different ftages. These paffions, raised at once to the utmost pitch, are at firft too big for utterance; and Emilia's feelings muft, for fome moments, have been expreffed by violent geftures only. So foon as there is a vent for words, the B conjecture this difference of tafte may be derived from what is obferved above. The pronunciation of the genuine language of paffion is neceffarily directed by the nature of the paffion, and by the flowness or celerity of its progrefs. In par ticular, plaintive paffions, which are the most frequent in tragedy, having a flow motion, dictate a flow pronunciation. In declamation again, which is not the genuine language of any paffion, the speaker warms gradually; and as he warms, he naturally accelerates his pronunciation. But as the French have formed their tone of pronunciation upon Corneille's declamatory tragedies, and the English upon the more natural language of Shakespear, it is not furprising that cuftom fhould produce fuch difference of tafte in the two nations. X 3 VOL. II. firft |