There shall the morn her earliest tears bestow, 388. Fifth. Fanciful or finical sentiments. Sentiments that degenerate into point or conceit, however they may amuse in an idle hour, can never be the offspring of any serious or important passion. In the Jerusalem of Tasso, Tancred, after a single combat, spent with fatigue and loss of blood, falls into a swoon; in which situation, understood to be dead, he is discovered by Erminia, who was in love with him to distraction. A more happy situation cannot be imagined, to raise grief in an instant to its height; and yet, in venting her sorrow, she descends most abominably into antithesis and conceit even of the lowest kind. (Canto xix. stan. 105.) Armida's lamentation respecting her lover Rinaldo, is in the same vicious taste. (Canto xx. stan. 124, 125, and 126.) Queen. Give me no help in lamentation, King Richard III. Act II. Sc. 2. Or wrong the orphan who has none to save him. Jane Shore, Act IV. Give me your drops, ye soft-descending rains; And feed an everlasting flood of sorrow.-Jane Shore, Act V. Jane Shore utters her last breath in a witty conceit : Then all is well, and I shall sleep in peace 'Tis very dark, and I have lost you now Was there not something I would have bequeath'd you! Nothing but one sad sigh. Oh mercy, Heaven! [Dies. Act V Gilford to Lady Jane Gray, when both were condemned to die: Thou stand'st unmoved; Calm temper sits upon thy beauteous brow: Thy eyes, that flow'd so fast for Edward's loss, Lady Jane Gray, Act IV. near the end. 887. Sentiments too artificial for a serious passion. Speech of Percy, &c. The concluding sentiment is altogether finical, unsuitable to the importance of the occasion, and even to the dignity of the passion of love. 389. Corneille, in his Examen of the Cid, answering an objection, That his sentiments are sometimes too much refined for persons in deep distress, observes, that if poets did not indulge sentiments more ingenious or refined than are prompted by passion, their performances would often be low, and extreme grief would never suggest but exclamations merely. This is, in plain language, to assert that forced thoughts are more agreeable than those that are natural, and ought to be preferred. 390. The second class is of sentiments that may belong to an ordinary passion, but are not perfectly concordant with it, as tinc tured by a singular character. In the last act of that excellent comedy, The Careless Husbar, Lady Easy, upon Sir Charles's reformation, is made to express more violent and turbulent sentiments of joy than are consistent with the mildness of her character: Lady Easy. O the soft treasure! O the dear reward of long-desiring love.Thus thus to have you mine, is something more than happiness; 'tis double life, and madness of abounding joy. If the sentiments of a passion ought to be suited to a peculiar character, it is still more necessary that actions be suited to the character. In the fifth act of the Drummer, Addison makes his gardener act even below the character of an ignorant, credulous rustic: he gives him the behavior of a gaping idiot. 391. The following instances are descriptions rather than senti ments, which compose a third class. Of this descriptive manner of painting the passions, there is in the Hippolytus of Euripides (Act V.) an illustrious instance, namely, the speech of Theseus, upon hearing of his son's dismal exit. In Racine's tragedy of Esther, the queen, hearing of the decree issued against her people, instead of expressing sentiments suitable to the occasion, turns her attention upon herself, and describes with accuracy her own situation : Juste Ciel! tout mon sang dans mes veines se glace. Act I. Sc. 3. A man stabbed to the heart in a combat with his enemy, ex presses himself thus: 388. Fanciful sentiments.-Jerusalem of Tasso, Richard III., &c. 389. Corneille's answer to the objection that his sentiments are too refined. 390. Sentiments not concordant with an ordinary passion.-Lady Easy.- Actions shoul be suited to the character. 391. Instances of descriptions rather than sentiments. Example from Dryden; from Paradise Lost. And like the vanishing sound of bells, grows less An example is given above of remorse and despair expressed by genuine and natural sentiments. In the fourth book of Paradise Lost, Satan is made to express his remorse and despair in sentiments which, though beautiful, are not altogether natural: they are rather the sentiments of a spectator, than of a person who actually is tormented with these passions. 392. The fourth class is of sentiments introduced too early or too late. Some examples mentioned above belong to this class. Add the following from Venice Preserved (Act V.), at the close of the scene between Belvidera and her father Priuli. The account given by Belvidera of the danger she was in, and of her husband's threatening to murder her, ought naturally to have alarmed her relenting father, and to have made him express the most perturbed sentiments. Instead of which he dissolves into tenderness and love for his daughter, as if he had already delivered her from danger, and as if there were a perfect tranquillity: Canst thou forgive me all my follies past? Dear as those eyes that weep in fondness o'er thee: 393. Immoral sentiments exposed in their native colors, instead of being concealed or disguised, compose the fifth class. The Lady Macbeth, projecting the death of the king, has the following soliloquy : -The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 7. This speech is not natural. A treacherous murder was never perpetrated even by the most hardened miscreant, without compunction and that the lady here must have been in horrible agitation, appears from her invoking the infernal spirits to fill her with cruelty, and to stop up all avenues to remorse. But in that state of mind, it is a never-failing artifice of self-deceit, to draw the thickest veil over the wicked action, and to extenuate it by all the circumstances that imagination can suggest; and if the crime cannot bear disguise, the next attempt is to thrust it out of mind altogether, and to rush on to action without thought. This last was the husband's method: 892. Sentiments introduced unseasonably.- Venice Preserved. Strange things I have in head, that will to hand; Which must be acted ere they must be scann'd.-Act III. Sc. 5. The lady follows neither of these courses, but in a deliberate manner endeavors to fortify her heart in the commission of an execrable crime, without even attempting to color it. This I think is not natural: Í hope there is no such wretch to be found as is here represented. In Congreve's Double-dealer, Maskwell, instead of disguising or coloring his crimes, values himself upon them in a soliloquy : Cynthia, let thy beauty gild my crimes; and whatsoever I commit of treachery or deceit, shall be imputed to me as a merit.- -Treachery! what treachery? Love cancels all the bonds of friendship, and sets men right upon their first foundations. In French plays, love, instead of being hid or disguised, is treated as a serious concern, and of greater importance than fortune, family, or dignity. I suspect the reason to be, that, in the capital of France, love, by the easiness of intercourse, has dwindled down from a real passion to be a connection that is regulated entirely by the mode or fashion. 394. The last class comprehends sentiments that are unnatural, as being suited to no character or passion. These may be subdivided into three branches: first, sentiments unsuitable to the constitution of man, and to the laws of his nature; second, inconsistent sentiments; third, sentiments that are pure rant and extravagance. When the fable is of human affairs, every event, every incident, and every circumstance, ought to be natural, otherwise the imitation is imperfect. But an imperfect imitation is a venial fault, compared with that of running cross to nature. In the Hippolytus of Euripides (Act IV. Sc. 5), Hippolytus, wishing for another self in his own situation, "How much," says he, "should I be touched with his misfortune!" as if it were natural to grieve more for the misfortunes of another than for one's own. Osmyn. Yet I behold her-yet-and now no more. O impotence of sight! mechanic sense Which to exterior objects owest thy faculty, Not seeing of election, but necessity. Thus do our eyes, as do all common mirrors, Nor what they would, but must; a star or toad; Mourning Bride, Act II. Sc. 8. No man in his senses, ever thought of applying his eyes to discover what passes in his mind; far less of blaming his eyes for not seeing a thought or idea. In Molière's L'Avare (Act IV. Sc. 7), Harpagon being robbed of his money, seizes himself by the arm, mistaking it for that of the robber. And again he expresses himself as follows: 893. Immoral sentiments exposed instead of being concealed.-Lady Macbeth's soliloquy. Not natural.-Remarks on French plays. 894. Sentiments unnatural. Three branches.-Examples of sentiments unsuitable to the constitution of man. Je veux aller quérir la justice, et faire donner la question à toute ma maison; à servantes, à valets, à fils, à fille, et à moi aussi. 395. Of the second branch the following are examples. -Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible, Yea, get the better of them.-Julius Cæsar, Act II. Sc. 3. Vos mains seule sont droit de vaincre un invincible. Le Cid, Act V. Sc. last. Que son nom soit béni. Que son nom soit chanté, Au de là de l'éternité.-Esther, Act V. Sc. last. Me miserable! which way shall I fly Still threatening to devour me, opens wide; Paradise Lost, Book IV. 396. Of the third branch, take the following samples, which are pure rant. Coriolanus, speaking to his mother What is this? Your knees to me? to your corrected son? Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun: What cannot be, slight work.-Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 8. So much upon sentiments; the language proper for expressing them, comes next in order. CHAPTER XVII. LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 397. AMONG the particulars that compose the social part of our nature, a propensity to communicate our opinions, our emotions, and every thing that affects us, is remarkable. Bad fortune and injustice affect us greatly; and of these we are so prone to complain, that if we have no friend or acquaintance to take part in our sufferings, 395. Examples of inconsistent sentiments. |