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And be not fixt in doom perpetual,

Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation.

Again,

RICHARD III.-ACT IV. Sc. 4.

K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your child.
Constance. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garment with his form:
Then have I reason to be fond of grief.

KING JOHN. ACT III. Sc. 4.

A thought that turns upon the expression instead of the subject, commonly called a play of words, is unworthy of a composition that pretends to any degree of elevation: thoughts of this kind make a fifth class.

In the Amynta of Tasso,* the lover falls into a mere play of words, demanding how he, who had lost himself, could find a mistress.

To die is to be banish'd from myself:
And Sylvia is myself; banish'd from her,
Is self from self; a deadly banishment!

Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.-ACT III. Sc. 1.
Countess. I pray thee, lady, have a better cheer:
If thou engrossest all the griefs as thine,
Thou robb'st me of a moiety.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.-ACT III. Sc. 2.
K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?

O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,

Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.

SECOND PART HENRY IV. ACT IV. Sc. 4.

Antony, speaking of Julius Cæsar:

O world! thou wast the forest of this hart:
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, stricken by many princes,
Dost thou here lie!

JULIUS CESAR.-ACT III. Sc. 1.

Playing thus with the sound of words is worse than a pun, and the meanest of all conceits. But Shak

*Act I. Sc. 2.

speare, when he descends to a play of words, is not always in the wrong; for it is done sometimes to denote a peculiar character, as in the following passage:

K. Philip. What say'st thou boy? look in the lady's face.
Lewis. I'do, my lord, and in her eye I find

A wonder, or a wondrous miracle;

The shadow of myself form'd in her eye;
Which being but the shadow of your son,
Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow.
I do protest, I never lov'd myself

Till now infixed I beheld myself

Drawn in the flatt'ring table of her eye.

Falconbridge. Drawn in the flatt'ring table of her eye!
Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!

And quarter'd in her heart! he doth espy
Himself Love's traitor: this is pity now,

That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be
In such a love so vile a lout as he.

KING JOHN.-Act II. Sc. 2.

A jingle of words is the lowest species of that low wit, which is scarce sufferable in any case, and least of all in an heroic poem; and yet Milton, in some instances, has descended to that puerility:

And brought into the world a world of woe.

-Begirt th' Almighty throne,

Beseeching or besieging

Which tempted our attempt

At one slight bound high overleap'd all bound.
-With a shout

Loud as from number without numbers.

One would think it unnecessary to enter a caveat against an expression that has no meaning, or no distinct meaning; and yet somewhat of that kind may be found even among good writers. Such make a fifth class.

Sebastian. I beg no pity for this mould'ring clay:
For if you give it burial, there it takes

Possession of your earth:

If burnt and scatter'd in the air; the winds

That strew my dust, diffuse my royalty,

And spread me o'er your clime; for where one atom

Of mine shall light, know there Sebastian reigns.

DRYDEN, DON SEBASTIAN KING OF PORTUGAL, ACT I.

Such empty expressions are finely ridiculed in the Rehearsal:

Was 't not unjust to ravish hence her breath,
And in life's stead to leave us nought but death.

ACT IV. Sc. 1.

REVIEW.

What remarkable propensity is noticed?

Is it the most immoderate grief which complains most?
What passions are silent?

How is it with love and revenge?

Why should the language of passion be interrupted?

To what should the sentiments and language be tuned?
Give examples.

What is the effect of figurative expressions?—what is their effect when exaggerated?

What sort of words are used in expressing the active passions? -what sort for the expression of melancholy?

What other circumstance is requisite to preserve the resemblance between the sound and the sense?

Give examples of passion redoubling words to express strong conceptions.

In what is Shakspeare superior to all other writers?
In what does he excel most others?

Where does he occasionally fall below himself?
What is Corneille's great fault?

What is the criticism on a passage of Phædra?
What are Corneille's merits?

What should be the character of soliloquies?

Who furnishes the best models?

What is observed of the soliloquies of Corneille and Racine? How should soliloquies on lively subjects be carried on?

Give an example.

How should soliloquies where a man reasons on an important subject be carried on?

What is the next class of errors noticed?

Give examples.

What is the third class of errors?

Give an example.

Give specimens of language too light for a severe passion?
What is remarked concerning a play of words?

How is Shakspeare's playing on the sound of words sometimes

justified?

Give an example.

Give an example of a jingle of words of words with no distinct meaning.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Beauty of Language.

PAINTING and sculpture are imitative fine arts; architecture and music are productive of originals: language resembles these last, and like them copies but little from nature. The beauty of language arises from its power of expressing thought; the beauty of thought makes it appear more beautiful. This beauty is the beauty of means fitted to an end. The beauty of language arises from sound; signification; resemblance between sound and signification; and the beauties of verse and prose.

SECTION I-Beauty of Language with respect to Sound.

This subject requires the following order: The sounds of the different letters come first; next, these sounds as united in syllables; third, syllables united in words; fourth, words united in a period; and, in the last place, periods united in a discourse. The vowels are sounded with a single respiration; each of the vowels, a, e, i, o, u, sound agreeably to the ear. Consonants have no sound of themselves, but serve with vowels to form articulate sounds; every syllable into which a consonant enters has more than one sound, though pronounced with one expiration of breath: every syllable is composed of as many sounds as there are letters, supposing every letter to be distinctly pronounced.

In inquiring how far syllables are agreeable to the ear, we find a double sound more agreeable than a single sound; for the diphthong oi, or ai, is more agreeable than either of these vowels pronounced singly. Thus, the harmony of pronunciation differs widely from that of music; since in the latter we find many sounds which are singly agreeable, but in conjunction disagreeable.

M

From syllables we proceed to words, of which the agreeableness or disagreeableness depends partly upon the effect of syllables in succession; and principally from the agreeableness or disagreeableness of their component syllables. But different nations judge differently of the harshness or smoothness of articulate sounds. The English language is rough: the Italian so smooth, that vowels are frequently suppressed to produce a rougher and bolder tone.

We come next to the music of words as united in a period. Periods may be constructed to ascend, or to descend, in musical harmony. The rising series, or a strong impulse succeeding a weak, makes double impression on the mind; the falling series, or a weak impulse succeeding a strong, scarce any impression.

The last article, the music of periods as united in a discourse, shall be dispatched in few words. By no other human means is it possible to present to the mind such a number of objects, and in so swift a succession, as by speaking or writing; and for that reason variety ought more to be studied in these, than in any other sort of composition. Hence a rule for arranging the members of different periods with relation to each other, that to avoid a tedious uniformity of sound and cadence, the arrangement, the cadence, and the length of the members, ought to be diversified as much as possible and if the members of different periods be sufficiently diversified, the periods themselves will be equally so.

SECTION II.-The Beauty of Language with respect to Signification.

The present subject divides itself into parts; and what follows suggests a division into two parts. In every period, two things are to be regarded: first, the words of which it is composed; next, the arrangement of these words; the former resembling the stones that compose a building, and the latter resembling the order

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