Nugae literariae: prose and verse

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and as we have no Chorus to fili up the hiatus, or to explain the argument, a fuller play-bili must be allowod. A mors dissiculiquestion arises in regarii to the unities, the classic rule heing that the exhibition must take place on one spol, and during thatone time which may be demanded for the action. Μany objections may be taken to this theory. In the strat place, notevery sitiing story could be thus evolved. To be thus concise Would make it most obscure. Second*, it scarcely diminishesthe dissiculty of tho illusion. What Athenian evor belloved that the stago Was the porci, of Apollo' S temple, or the palace- court of Argos Θ It is only a neW act of imagination to passfroni Rome to Philippi: and o ly a litile stronger essori so to alter the stylo ' as to live through the Wintefs Talo. Totaik of bellemno any thing in this matter, is Dolisti: We netther belleve the place nor time. Thirdly, in the sinest archetypes of

these unities, much is unitaturalty compressed. EXamine the Agamemnon. Only Such genius could surmount the abbreviation. It is the Wardo 's last night of Walch, but teri years Seem to creep in his complaint. In one broken sentence heinsorius iis of the disorders which have long prevallod in thehouse of the Ling. Tho signat of the beacon is followod by thosacrisce of ali tho altars. This the Chorus telis us. Only onthat night did Troy sall. The Conqueror, Willi Cassandra, this

Very day returns, a Voyage at that time of many Weelis. On thalday, too, he dies. All this is too hurried, too crowded, for that por et illusion whicli the unities are called in to preserve. Fourthly, Consequences cannot develope themselves in such rapid succession. Heaven is long-sussering, and the boli do not instantaneoiasty fall. The wel, of Wichedness is osten flowlyspun, and it is not, When spun, immediately torn. The description by the poet pede Paena claudo,V is strictly true. Ourpatience is tried by the prosperity of the Wichod, ' and wo must Wait to see their end. ' The sacrifice of these arbitraryrulos is duo to those great principies of a diVine governinent, whicli constantly unsold themselves among the inhabitants of the worid, and by Whicli th learn righteolasness.

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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARE.

has by his genius soared above them, and provod himself nobiyindependent of their necessity. To ali may bo indulged his licenso who fhail emulate his sight. He is an eagle towering in his pride os placo. ' Ηρ is his own Lawgiver and Ruler.

In the supernatural machines of Shakspeare there is a gran- deur Whicli places him greatly above the masters, in compariSOnof whom many destre to tessen him. Μention will now be madeonly of tho Gliost in Hamlet. The Fronch crities have been much amused With it, chiefly With iis disappearance at thecroWing of a coch. To dismiss this petiy objection ut once, We have but to remember that the popular superstition on whicli thewhole is founded, universalty agrees that the ghost only Wallis at night: that at the earliest daWn, the extravagant und erringspirit, hies to his confine.'' What more natural announcement of tho day-breali than this stirili clarion ΘΠ Shakspeare need notho Harmed sor his fame, because of this introduction, when Euripides demands of A schylus, in their triat besore Bacchus :

sive of the undisturbed solitude and silenco untii the ghostuppears l But We must protest against such a translation ustilat of which we have heard:

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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARE.

It enters, it deparis. Horatio is convinced, ρε trembles indlooks pale,r having the sensibie and true avouch of his oWneyes.' It returiis, but is silent to his most earnest invocation.

How it glides ethereatly l

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than warned aWay by the other. Darius Wallis Doni his tomb. Ηρ is troated with civility, rather than reveretice, by his Satrapswho forni the Chorus. Atossa appears litile moved at the resurrection of her Spouse. Ηe malles many disheartening revelationsas to the fallure of Xerxes, Aeetias much surprised With the idea os a bridge over the Hellespont, and concludes With this adviceto the old men: Do you rejoice, notWithstanding these eviis, unite in taliing pleasiare to your Very Souis, eVery day of youriise, for hoarded treasure prosis not the dead. ' The ghost os Polydorus is introduced by Euripides in his Hecuba. Heserves none other use than that of prologiae, and no more appears. There is nothing aWful in his manner or revelation. Did he not teli us that his body is in tho sea, and that he has just returned hom Hades, there is no unearthliness, no spiritualism, to betoken it. Where ali is extreme and contraSt, Comparison cannot be applied ,-and the genius of AEschylus musthero veil iis head in the presence of a more potent WiZard, andat tho effect os a dreader speti. Shakspoaro has litile didactio in him. Ηρ does not moraliseliis song. He pauses not to set a lesson home. Ηe does not, like Euripides, enunciate, With solemn emphasis, high principieand sentiment. He has no characters Who declaim like Theseus in the Supplianis, or Auturgus in Electra: but he embodies in the story, and verisses by tho issiae, the good or the evit hewould latsently inculcato. With ali that dissigures and pollutos his Writings, I know not a bad morai or a Wrong Sentiment Which, as an author, he Would convey. Κeeping to the course of things, he allows occasionalty vice itis success, and virtve iis oppression : but the one is only raised for the heavior tali, thoother only eclipsed for a burst of more glorious effulgence. The most common censure of the Englisti bard is, that his dramas are too broken into episode and by-ploi,-that th

objection is found in the Ars Poetica os Horace :

-- Servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.

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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAK SPE ARE.

His is the

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Withat he is constitutionalty undecided:

Ηe is placed in circumstances of awsul interest, amidst themost contending insuences. His fallier has been flain by a brother's hand, is mollier he dare not think of,

the treacherous king has interposed belWeen

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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAKSPEARE.

Ho holiis his life valueless under such a condition

Hul after he has parriod with these creatures of the king sent toplay upon him ,-he says to himself, in high satisfaction :

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that is, indulgo in the belles that ait these pretences are reat, think me as insano as I destre to be thought. Ηρ drops the disguise When he eXpostulates With his mo-

His caret ess manner ut the sight of the flain Polonius, canonly be explained by his ianvarying contempt of that courtier, and stili moro by the sudden relies of his intense excitement, Dona tho thought that he had killed tho king. Whon he struckat the arras, that Was his desigri velled in the light exclamation, ρε A rat, a ratir He seels this to be an irresponsible accident, and is glad that thias the act of Vengeance yet is spared. In Horatio he found his confidentiat Dion d :

him. This is observabie in his letter, after being taken by the pirate. They Speah on equat ternas in the grave-yard. And in seeking pardon of Laertes for his Violeiace, Hanalet avows his madness, a proof hoW he acted stili his pari:

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ON THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF SHAKsPEARE. 217

It is no criticism to say that the maniac somelimes knows his disease, and will even talk of it: the question is, What are thesedeclarations connected with Hamlecs history and late 8 It is to Horatio stili ho ontrusis tho vindication of his memory. Feeling the potent polson ' he exclatins :

Additionalty it may be asked, Was not his remonstrance With Ophelia, in an earlier scene, So rude and cruei, though he fondly loved her, an evidelice of distraught fancy Θ Ηρ Wasdevoted to a Work of Vengeance, incompatibie With a continuation of this troth: he brealis it under this deception. His

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truly. His innermost anatomy iS made transparent to eachvosicle and globule in it, as though to the microscopic lens and

Hamiel f semblance of a mind o'erthrown, -is evidently intended to contrast With Ophelia s real alienation. Ιf any one should disparage the Church-Yard Sceno, Ι canonly declare my admiration of it. The hardihood of the sextons, their characteristic uia elingness of gibe and Sel Limportance,- the happy opportunity for the return of Hamlet,-the last woe of Opholia in hor maimed rites, '-the attestation of his love for her When ali is sincere and seriouS, ΠΟW sor eVer ProVed,- greatly assist the tragic climax. The gravedigger's singingmakes the bones he turias up look more gliastly,--d his Wretched conceiis give to the musings of his interrogatisis ahigher interest os philosophic reflection. It is impossibio, though it has deformities, to extol this drama too warnaly. IIamiet is the Orestes of Shakspeare, Without his resentiessness; or rather his Hippolytus, like him, butfar more nobiy, seehing to be velled in death. In Othollo wo snd a remarkable instance hoW a Smali, and apparently UnWitting, passage Serves to decypher and to assistilio entire ovolution of the drama. Just as the Senate, after hearing the apology of the accused seducer, is abolit to dissolve, Brabantio, the fallier of DeSdemona, SRyS :