fo boldly figurative as not to be excused but by violent perturbation of mind. splwo? Le ciel avec horreur voit ce monftre fauvage, Yet Theramene gives a long pompous connected description of this event, dwelling upon every minute circumftance, as if he had been only a cool fpectator. A peine nous fortions des portes de Trézene, &c. anilleg Act 5. Sc. 6. The laft fpeech of Atalide, in the tragedy of Bajazet, of the fame author, is a continued difcourfe, and but a faint reprefenta tion of the violent paffion which forc'd her to put an end to her own life. Though works, not authors, are the profeffed fubject of this critical undertaking, I am tempted by the present speculation, to tranfgrefs once again the limits tost prescribed, prefcribed, and to venture a curfory reflection upon this juftly-celebrated author, That he is always fenfible, generally correct, never falls low, maintains a moderate degree of dignity without reaching the sublime, paints delicately the tender paffions, but is a stranger to the true language of enthufiaftic or fervid paffion. If in general the language of violent paffion ought to be broken and interrupted, foliloquies ought to be fo in a peculiar manner. Language is intended by nature for society; and a man when alone, though he always clothes his thoughts in words, feldom gives his words utterance unless when prompted by fome ftrong emotion; and even then by starts and intervals only *. Shakespear's foliloquies may be justly established as a model; for it is not eafy to conceive any model more perfect. Of his many incomparable foliloquies, I confine myself to the two following, being different in their manner. Soliloquies accounted for chap. 15. Hamlet. Hamlet. Oh, that this too too folid flesh would melt, Thaw, and refolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His cannon 'gainst self-flaughter? O God! O How weary, ftale, flat, and unprofitable ture Poffefs it merely. That it fhould come to this! Hyperion to a fatyr: fo loving to my mother, him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on; yet, within a month Let me not think man! Frailty, thy name is Wo A little month, or ere thofe fhoes were old, Would have mourn'd longer) married with mine uncle, My father's brother; but no more like my father It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. Hamlet, at 1. fc. 3. Ford. Hum! ha! is this a vifion? is this a dream? do I fleep? Mr Ford, awake; awake Mr Ford; there's a hole made in your best coat, Mr Ford! this 'tis to be married! this 'tis to have linen and buck baskets! Well, I will proclaim myself what I am; I will now take the leacher; he is at my houfe, he cannot 'fcape me; 'tis impoffible he should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny-purse, nor into a pepper-box. But left the devil that guides him fhould aid him, I will fearch impoffible places; though what I am I cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not, fhall not make me tame. Merry Wives of Windfor, at 3. fc. last. Thefe foliloquies are accurate copies of nature. In a paffionate foliloquy one begins with thinking aloud; and the strongest feelings only, are expreffed. As the speaker warms, he begins to imagine one listening, and gradually flides into a connected difcourse. How far diftant are foliloquies generally from these models? They are indeed for the most part fo unhappily executed, as to give disgust instead of pleasure. The first fcene of Iphigenia in Tauris difcovers that princess, in a foliloquy, gravely reporting to herself her own history. There is the fame impropriety in the firft fcene of Alceftes, and in the other introductions of Euripides, almost without exception. Nothing can be more ridiculous. It puts one in mind of that ingenious device in Gothic paintings, of making every figure explain itself by a written label iffuing from its mouth. The description a parafite, in the Eunuch of Terence *, gives of himself in the form of a foliloquy, is lively; but against all the rules of propriety; for no man, in his ordinary state of mind, and upon a familiar * A&t 2. fc. 2. subject, |