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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARE.
Sequence of Some stern necessity. The marriage of Iocasta toller oWn Son ,-the murder of the Argive conqueror by his own
cations, and Under the blows, of him site reared, a sister instigating the brothess parricidal hand,-Μedea's bulchery of herchildren, - Creonla sentence of living interment, - these alloppress and shoch the foui. Could I sor a moment bellove that Shakspeare had any paternity in Titus Andronicus and Pericles, I should bo unable to oppose him With any Success to these great authors. Those dramas are daubs of blood and incest. ButWe may observe, in his genuine play8, the stamP and coinage of his tendor spirit. Ηe gloats in nothing Whicli revolis. Ina feW instances he violates the Horatian rule:
Non tamen intuSDigna geri promes in Scenam.
But there is nothing of the unnatural in his most frightful acts :or else there is a tincture of compassion and truth in their execution.
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effect os common passion S, Whose developinent he ianwinds withtho finest caution and perspicuity; and he seems to fhun thatoxomplification of Vice Whicli is gratuitous and unaccount te, whicli elucidates no principie and impreSSes no Warning. The accuracy With Whicli our Poet classisses his characters, minutely shading them, endle88ly Variegating them, neversussering them to mix and confound with each other, is acharacteristic of his potent art. Each retians iis species. It is distinci, not only in iis ouiline, but to iis tota ch. This maybo illustraled by his garriors. Ιt has been the lashion to depict Μacbeth as pusillantinous: and this by a contrast with
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would deny him constitutiones heroisin and martiat daring lFor What is the morat intended to bo taught 8 that dini and
bravery are no antidotes to the fears of superstition, and thestings of gulit. To the very last the physical fortitude of the
Boyond a dolabi his coiirage, in iis ordinary Sense, does notabato, but rather strengiliens With the pressure of his circumstances, and the extinction of his hetter feelings. Nono of hisenenates defame him as cogard l
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The coiirage of Richard the Third is no stronger in iis texture, but it has more lightness and gaiety in it. He is theeasy Villain. Ηe caii Smile, and murder as he smiles. Hereflects upon nothing. It cost him nothing to Woo the Lady
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Ηotspur is a head-strong spirit, Falconbridge a bluss cavalier. These remarks might be extended to other classifications os characters, ---this is a specimen. Shahspeare individuali sos more than Homer himself: nor cata I snd any approach to this in tho leading personages of the Greeli drama. They rian intooach other. It is frequently the fame round of stately monO-
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tony. Seldom is there to be found in any one drama that variety which nearly ali his may boast. They felt it necessary tokeep down every character but that of the principal: even Iasonis made a meagre oviline to give effect to Μedea. Shakspeare osten crowds his stage Without any entanglement of the fabie, or distraction of the interest. A sirst, or caret ess, reading of this author, might be com
interior of sonae gorgeous temple. The order, the ouiline, atonoe is caught. But the grandeur oVer Wers. In astonishmentat the whole, we overtook the nature of the proportions, and the grace of each minutest pari. The oratories, the altars, have thoir exquisite finisti. Not a rece88, not a tracery, not an intercolumniation, but agreES.It is a great peculiari ty of Shakspeare that he has writtonso many historical plays. These have been objected to as Deither tragedies nor comedies. Percy, in his Reliques of Ancioni Poet , insortiis us that this tripartite distinction Was early taken. Ηe quotes Dom StoW, Dom Beaumoni and Fletcher, and thoWell-known commendation of the actors by Polonius, the bestin the worid for tragedy, comedy, history, &c.' Ηe adds also,
in their table os contenis have arranged them under those three
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and divide the sympathy. His History may not be alWays themost authentic: his sictions, especialty his comic, may notat Ways compori With historic dignity: but there is no generat,no morat, distortion of tho truth. Euripides has erred in tho gloss he has thrown upon severat historical personages. Is Weknow any thing of the persons Whom he too much eXCUSeS,Helena, Clytemnestra, Aledea, a re names devoted to deservedinfamy. His representations describe Helena as pure and faith-ful to Μenelaus, and that only an aerial likeness Was carried by Paris to Troy: we are inclined to palliate the crime of Clytemnestra, because her hiisband is described as deceiving hor withthe promise of her daughters marriage With Achilles When site Was required for a victim, and as having been herseis forcod intoa haled marriage: we are blinded to the monster crueity of Μedea, because, first assured of her excessive maternat love, we are informed that she mangled her childron as the onlymothod of reaching the Delings of her hiisband, and of resent-ing his perfidy. The c. in Whicli ine is borne aWay, above his reach, With iis yoke of dragons, being a miracle, leaves theidea that the gods approved the deed. He also is uiri usi intho vie v of Hecuba, as is one Trojan excellen ce Was grudged by a Greeh. For a very love of vice he painis every crime in
In nothing does Shakspeare more surpass these his onlyrivais, than in his conception os Female Character. The lovellest daughters of Our nature grace his scene. Some of these
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her simple truthful ansWers to Polonius, who en quires of the Lord Hamlecs tenders of assections,-her ignorance of his meming when he had burst upon her, Wild and incoherent, Domitio sight of the ghost of his buried fallier, is appeal to her,
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ΟΝ THE TRAGIC G ΕΝ IUS OF SHAK SPE ARE. 207
Then hoW naturat is her reminiscence of hev mother's maid, callod Barbara l
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Miranda is the simple enchantress of the enchanted iste.-Iindeed assume that in Shakspeare's Female characters, in his respect for the sex, in his dramatic illustration and defenco ofit, there is no brother near his throne. Is tho simplicity of the Grea drama be alleged, especiallyin tho case of iis seW interlocutors, against the frequently numerous dialogue os ours,-especialty that of Shakspeare,- We object to the rule as Unmeming and arbitrary : We do not See that the objection os Horaco to a Durth speaker is reason le: