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In the following paffage a character is completed by a single stroke:

Shallow. O the mad days that I have spent; and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead.

Silence. We fhall all follow, Coufin.

:

Shallow. Certain, 'tis certain, very fure, very 'fure; Death (as the Pfalmift faith) is certain to all all fhall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair? Slender. Truly, Coufin, I was not there. Shallow. Death is certain. Is old Double of

living yet?

Silence. Dead, Sir.

your town

Shadow. Dead! fee, fee; he drew a good bow: and dead? He fhot a fine fhoot. How a fcore of ewes now? Silence. Thereafter as they be. A fcore of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shallow. And is old Double dead?

Second Part Henry IV. act 3. fe. 3.

Defcribing a jealous husband:

Neither prefs, coffer, cheft, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abstract for the remembrance of fuch places, and goes to them by his note. There is no hiding you in the house. Merry Wives of Windsor, act 4. fc. 3.

Congreve has an inimitable stroke of this kind in his comedy of Love for Love:

Ben Legend. Well, father, and how do all at home! how does brother Dick, and brother Val?

Sir Sampson. Dick, body o' me, Dick has been dead

thefe

1

thefe two years. I writ you word, when you were at Leg

horn,

Ben. Mefs, that's true; marry, I had forgot. dead, as you say.

Falstaff speaking of Ancient Piftol:

Dick's

Alt 3. fc. 6.

He's no fwaggerer, hoftefs; a tame cheater i'faith; you may stroak him as gently as a puppey-greyhound; he will not fwagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any fhew of refiftence.

Second Part Henry IV. act 2. fc. 9.

Offian among his other excellencies is eminently fuccessful in drawing characters; and he never fails to delight his reader with the beautiful attitudes in which he prefents his heroes. Take the following instances.

O Ofcar! bend the strong in arm; but fpare the feeble hand. Be thou a ftream of many tides against the foes of thy people; but like the gale that moves the grafs to those who afk thine aid.-So Trenmor lived; fuch Trathal was; and fuch has Fingal been. My arm was the fupport of the injured; and the weak refted behind the lightning of my steel.

We heard the voice of joy on the coaft, and we thought that the mighty Cathmor came. Cathmor the friend of ftrangers! the brother of red-haired Cairbar. But their fouls were not the fame; for the light of heaven was in the bofom of Cathmor. His towers rofe on the banks of Atha: feven paths led to his halls: feven chiefs

ftood

ftood on thofe paths, and called the ftranger to the feaft. But Cathmor dwelt in the wood to avoid the voice of praise.

Dermid and Ofcar were one: they reaped the battle together. Their friendship was ftrong as their steel; and death walked between them to the field. They rush on the foe like two rocks falling from the brow of Ardven. Their fwords are ftained with the blood of the valiant: warriors faint at their name, Who is equal to Oscar bu Dermid? who to Dermid but Ofcar?

Son of Comhal, replied the chief, the ftrength of Mor. ni's arm has failed: I attempt to draw the fword of my youth, but it remains in its place: I throw the fpear, bu it falls fhort of the mark: and I feel the weight of my fhield. We decay like the grafs of the mountain, and our strength returns no more. I have a fon, O Fingal, his foul has delighted in the actions of Morni's youth; but his fword has not been fitted against the foe, neither has his fame begun. I come with him to battle; to direct his His renown will be a fun to my foul, in the dark hour of my departure. O that the name of Morni were forgot among the people! that the heroes would only fay, "Behold the father of Gaul."

arm.

Some writers, through heat of imagination, fall into contradictions; fome are guilty of down. right inconsistencies; and fome even rave like madmen, Against fuch capital errors one cannot be more effectually warned than by collecting instances; and the firft fhall be of a contradiction, the most venial of all. Virgil fpeaking of Nep

tune,

VOL. II,

Interca

Interea magno mifceri murmure pontum
Emiffamque hyemem fenfit Neptunus, et imis
Stagna refufa vadis: graviter commotus, et alto
Profpiciens, fummâ placidum caput extulit undâ.

Again:

Eneid, i, 128,

When first young Maro, in his boundless mind,
A work t'outlaft immortal Rome design'd.

Effay on Criticifm, l. 130.

The following examples are of downright inconfiftencies:

Alii pulfis e tormento catenis difcerpti fectique, dimidiato corpore pugnabant fibi fuperftites, ac peremptæ partis ultores. Strada, Dec. 2. L. 2.

Il povér huomo, che non fen' era accorto,
Andava combattendo, ed era morto.

Berni,

He fled, but flying, left his life behind.

Iliad, xi. 443.

Full through his neck the weighty falchion fped:
Along the pavement roll'd the mutt'ring head.

Odyssey, xxii. 365.

The last article is of raving like one mad. Cleopatra speaking to the afpic,

Welcome, thou kind deceiver,

Thou beft of thieves; who, with an eafy key,

Doft

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Doft open life, and unperceiv'd by us
Ev'n steal us from ourselves; difcharging fo
Death's dreadful office,' better than himself,
Touching our limbs fo gently into flumber,
That Death ftands by, deceiv'd by his own image,
And thinks himself but fleep.

Dryden, All for Love, act 5.

Reafons that are common and known to every one, ought to be taken for granted: to exprefs them is childish, and interrupts the narration. Quintus Curtius, relating the battle of Iffus,

Jam in confpectu, fed extra teli jactum, utraque acies erat; quum priores Perfæ inconditum et trucem fuftulere clamorem. Redditur et a Macedonibus major, exercitus impar numero, fed jugis montium vaftifque faltibus repercuffus: quippe femper circumjecta nemora petræque, quantumcumque accepere vocem, multiplicato fono referunt.

Having difcuffed what obfervations occurred upon the thoughts or things expreffed, I proceed to what more peculiarly concerns the language or verbal drefs. The language proper for expreffing paffion being the fubject of a former chapter, feveral obfervations there made are applicable to the prefent fubject; particularly, That words being intimately connected with the ideas they reprefent, the emotions raised by the found and by the sense ought to be concordant. An elevated fubject requires an elevated ftyle; what is familiar, ought to be familiarly expreffed: a fub

Y 2

ject

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