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ternas.with John of Gaunt. Ηe had been abolit colari. Ashnighthood cannot descend, he must have received that honour onpersonat considerations. Since Shakspeare Would do his ulmostio make the character Uniform, We may accepi the language hepuis into the molith of Ford, alloWing for iis intended saltery, as his own impression of What he drew : Sir, I hear you are a Scholar Yoia are a gentieman os excellent breeding, admirabie discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your place and person, generalty alloWed for Four many Warlike, courtlike, and learned preparations. ' Such a maia ut the ouiset of li , musthave been accomptished, Scholarly, and braVe. Falsia1r is osten misconceived in the more ordinary lines of his character. Whatever dentes him gentiemanly polisti, good education, and proper coiirage, i S to mistake him. Ηρ assecis his coarseness and vulgarity. His coWardice is chiossy bellovodon his own consession. But What is his catechism on honour
shrunk Dom iis volt . There is a singular ascendancy of mind in Falstafr. Eachos his associates Deis it, and not the least the Princo. Allsparkles around him, and he is the cause that wit is in othormen. ' His Wit is ever ready, and is most fertile in iis refoureos. Α specimen may be offered. The raillery goes Strong against
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Falsiasy might have adorned any rank, might have excelle iin every virtve. But high animal spiriis hecame in him associaled with sensuality, and his course is, I truly belleve, describe lio furnish ait with a lesson and a proof how vice degrades a manin connection, in intellect, in coiarage, and in Sel Drespect. TOthis account may be added, that his religiolis impreSSions, per-haps rather than principies, must haVe been at one time Strong :tho leave him ill at easse amidst his groWing profligacies. Wo sind him, when sirst actins besere iis, a bankrupi in fortune, the companion of the prince and of the ruman, already degeneraled into coWardice, hiat exerting a master-minii to
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tho ready retori, the quick ingenuity, the genitas, the evit genius, of Falsiam there is no one Who does not, hom the very sirst,
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Three indications are given iis of this tendency, or of iis Wretched concomitants. The sirst is, the gradual occultation Ostiis intelle t. It is the unsailing effect os sensual indulgence. He is constantly losing his influence, and tries in vain to account for every man having a gird at hini' by the contagion of hisown wit. Thus he attempis to uphold his self-esteem, but we observe the misgiving. Ιt must be seen by ali that his vivacity, his repartee, his good nature, his earlier genti emanly bearing, wano. What is he in the second part of Henry IV., compared
repentancei Company, Villainous company, hath been the spolios me lV Even When most profane, and when he conjures VP the terrors of future retribution, it is biit that anomalous state
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we have only a narrative, in Which We find much suppressed orbut accidentalty supplied. Yet it operis to us a chamber halanted with guili, and echoing With groans. There lies the conscience- strichen wretch. The hag-procuress telis her tale in a mannersuited to her audience, and worthy of hersei She eniteavoursio make it an easy and quiet departure. She reporis it in the tone os ignorance the most eXtreme. She spealis of him as
shakod with the tertian V agiae and Duer, and yet as dying in a Way litile congruous With that complaint. Was not mental torture at Work8 From that, imbecility, at his period of lifo
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Thus is ShAspeare vindica ted in a morat treaiment of this character, the most uniform, and the most retributive. Hedoes not attempt to charin by Wit at the expense of Viriue, nor
Will he suffer a galaxy of the brightest politis to redeem What is defective in principie, or perniciolis in eXample lIt may bo demanded,-after this analysis of his genius, this discrimination of his Works, hether did the Bard surpassin the graver or the lighter drama 8 Is his characterigation more Properly the tragic or tho comic Θ It will bo dissiculi toargue the question on any common ground. Should we direct
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our judgment by the stronger or the wealier adheretice of such respective images to the memory, and their more eaSy or more
degres of intellectual habitudo and conformation. Is We suSpendthe judgment on the meastare of self-identification with whicli heenters into his characters and assimilates his productions, is fuit heari beats in all. Ηo is ominently ami te. He throws himself as much into the joys os innocence and peuce us into the distractions of guili and the visitations of vongeance. Both of these elements Were in the essence of his mirid. With ono exception, he Will not compose eXclusively in either style. Comedy enlivens his tragedy: tragedy Saddens his comedy. Helias scarcely to turn alternately to each, they are simultaneoUs.
The philosophy of such a mirid consisis in the vividnoss of iis
perceptions. A certa in equality belongs to iis greatness. Hetolis not in one or the other depariment. There is an ease of perfeci versatilily. Is he smile, that sinite is fuit os sentiment, ii covers not dissimulation nor turiis into a sneer. When his Countenance gathers palene88, and shrouds iissis into darkor expressions, there is nothing saturnine. His solii but talios thohue of ali around him, and reflecis iis variegations. Let iis, indeod, look into any noble mind. It is capable of great conceptions. It gracemi ly aspires to the elevated and transcendentia. It Deis deos interest in the Workings of passion, and in the evolution os ali corresponding event. So far it seems kindrodio the more serious moods. But it Would HWays be subjeci lo
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hidden sire. Ηe, too, is simple as any of Nature s culms: hecan be terrific as any os iis convulsions. Wo do not think it strange that he should bo the maste spirit os both tho volns :but we dare not attempt to weigh the exact proportion and side of his meriis. Like a monarch, on his Coronation-day, We may not Say, of the two Sceptres offered him, Whicli ho moronaturalty carries or rightfully clainis lI shali repseat nothing that Was offered in a former Essayiapon the too spontaneous, too complacent, introduction of gross-ness in many of this Author's Works. I Will say nothing on that question of personat consistency whicli respecis admiration os the dramatio structure of poetry, and specialty of the productions of this bard, and disapprobation of theatricia est lishments and exhibitions. He must be read,-he ought to be read, -and my humbis province has been to fhoW What are some of his meriis, and also to suggest some cautions in his perusal.
and disgust. But when I recati the sine, norae, sentiments of religion whicli osten Warm his page, hen Ι dWest iapon his caresul discernment of the human heari, when I belloid his nature audhis truth,-When I think of tho magician who can croWd his circle With fairy and goblin, the heroes of mythos and the
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together With stratiis in Whicli poets sing and philosophers
Ubi plura nitent, non ego Paucis Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit, Aut humana parum cavit natura. Ηor: Ars Poet: 351.