Can the ambitious, and jealous man have fentiments more expreffive of their manners, than what the poet gives to Macbeth and Othello? Mark Antony, as Plutarch informs us, affected the Afiatic manner of fpeaking, which much resembled his own temper, being ambitious, unequal, and very rodomontade. And 3 Cicero in his Brutus, mentioning the Afiatic manner, gives it the following character: Aliud autem genus eft non tam fententiis frequentatum, quàm verbis volucre, atque incitatum; qualis nunc eft Afia 3 Cic. in Brut. five de claris orator. f. 95. & f. 13. Hinc Afiatici oratores non contemnendi quidem nec celeritate, nec copiâ, fed parum preffi, et nimis redundantes, Petronius. Sat. c. II. "Nuper ventofa ifthæc, et enormis loquacitas "Athenas ex Afiâ commigravit, animofque juvenum ad magna "furgentes veluti peftilenti quodam fidere afflavit, fimulque "corrupta eloquentiæ regula ftetit et obtinuit." Octavius used to call Antony a mad man, for writing what people would rather admire at, than understand. " MARCUM "quidem ANTONIUM ut infanum increpat, quafi ea fcri"bentem quæ mirentur potius homines, quàm intelligant. De"inde ludens malum et inconftans in eligenda genere dicendi ingenium ejus, addidit hæc, Tuque dubitas, Cimberne "Annius, an Veranius Flaccus imitandi fint tibi ? ita ut verbis, quæ Crifpus Salluftius excerpfit ex originibus Catonis, utaris ? an potius ASIATICORUM ORATORUM ་་ INANIBUS SENTENTIIS VERBORUM VOLUBILITAS in "noftrum fermonem transferenda ?” And Afia tota; nec flumine folùm orationis, fed etiam exornato, et faceto genere verborum. This style our poet has very artfully, and learnedly interspersed in Antony's fpeeches. He thus addreffes Cleopatra. Let Rome in Tyber melt, and the wide arch Nor with lefs art has Shakespeare expreffed the coquetry of the wanton Cleopatra. When he defcribes nature diftorted and depraved, as in the characters of the Clown, the Courtier, the Fool, or Madman; how justly conformable are the fentiments to the feveral characters ? One would think it impoffible that Falstaff should talk otherwife, than Shakespeare has made him talk: and what not a little fhews the genius of And this obfervation, here made on Antony's Afiatic and bombaft ftyle, will explain the reafon, why Fluellin, Fin K. Henry V. Act III.] mistaking, through the honefty and fimplicity of his heart, Pistol's real character, compares him to M. Antony. "There is an Ancient ** lieutenant there at the pridge, I think, in my very con"fcience, he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony, and he is a man of no estimation in the world, but I did fee him "do gallant fervices." 4 Antony and Cleop. A&t I. our our poet, he has kept up the fpirit of his hu mour through three plays, one of which he wrote at the requeft of queen Elizabeth. For which reafon, if 'tis true what Dryden tells us, fpeaking of Mercutio's character in Romeo and Juliet, that Shakespeare faid himself, he was forced to kill him in the third act, to prevent being killed by him: it must be his diffidence and modesty that made him fay this, for it never could be thro' barrenness of invention, that Mercutio's fprightly wit was ended in the third act; but because there was no need of him, or his wit any longer. The variety of humour, exhibited in the several characters, deferves no less our admiration; and whenever he forms a different perfon, he forms a different kind of man. But when he exercises his creative art, and makes a 7 new creature, a bagborn whelp, not honoured with a human shape; he gives him manners, as difproportion'd, as his Thape, and fentiments proper for fuch manners. If on the contrary nature is to be pictured in more beautiful colours; if the hero, the friend, the patriot, or prince appears, the thoughts 6 Dryden's defence of the epilogue: or an effay on the dramatic poetry of the last age. 7 Caliban, in the Tempest. and and fentiments alone give an air of majefty to the poetry, without confidering even the lofty expreffions and fublimity of the diction. What can be more affecting and paffionate than king Lear? How does the ghost in Hamlet raise and terrify the imagination of the audience? In a word, the fentiments are fo agreeable to the characters, so just and natural, yet so animated and transported, that one would think no other could be poffibly ufed, more proper to the ends he proposes, whether it be to approve or disapprove, to magnify or diminish, to ftir or to calm the paffions, A Ut fibi quivis Speret idem; fudet multum, fruftraque laboret THE laft and loweft is the diction or expreffion, which fhould indeed be fuitable to the subject and character; and every affection of the human mind ought to speak in its proper tone and language. Shakespeare's expreffion is fo various, fo flowing and metaphorical, and has fo many peculiarities in it, that a more minute examination must be referved for another place. Mean while it may be fufficient to obferve, I 8 observe, that for a poet to labour in these mere ornamental parts of poetry; to make his diction fwelling and splendid, so as to overlook his plan, and obfcure his manners and fentiments; is juft as abfurd, as if a painter should only attend to his colouring and drapery, and never regard the human face divine. 9 Painting and poetry are two fifter arts; each of them has its fhades and lights, and each requires its proper points of view: each has it's defign, as well as colouring; if the former is defective, the latter is ridiculous. An ugly woman, tricked out in a tawdry dress, renders herself more notoriously contemptible by her useless ornaments. Interdum fpeciofa locis, morataque reƐte 8 Τῇ δὲ λέξει δεῖ διαπονεῖν ἐν τοῖς ἀρΓοῖς μέρεσι, καὶ μήτε ἠθι τοῖς μήτε διανοηλικοῖς. Ἀποκρύπτει γὰς πάλιν ἡ λίαν λαμπρὰ λέξις τὰ ἤθη καὶ τὰς διανοίας. The poet hould labour in his diction in thofe places where there is no action; not where there are manners and fentiments; for both these are obfcured where the diction is fplendid and glowing. Ariftot. wigi ποιητ. κεφ, κδ. 9 Ut pictura poefis erit, &c. Hor, art. poet. 361. SECT. |