J'irois, j'irois à lui, moins pour le lui ravir,
Que pour lui difputer le droit de vous fervir;
Et je n'afpirerois au bonheur de vous plaire,
Qu'après avoir mis bas un fi grand adversaire.
C'étoit pour acquerir un droit fi précieux,
Que combattoit par tout mon bras ambitieux,
Et dans Pharfale même il a tiré l'epée

Plus pour le confervir, que pour vaincre Pompée.
Je l'ai vaincu, Princeffe, et le Dieu de combats
M'y favorifoit moins que vos divins appas.
Ils conduifoient ma main, ils'enfloient mon courage,
Cette pleine victoire eft leur dernier ouvrage,
C'est l'effet des ardeurs qu'ils daignoient m'inspirer;
Et vos beaux yeux enfin m'ayant fait foûpirer,
Pour faire que votre ame avec gloire y réponde,
M'ont rendu le premier, et de Rome, et du monde ;
C'eft ce glorieux titre, à présent effectif,
Que je viens ennoblir par celui de captif;
Heureux, fi mon efprit gagne tant fur le vôtre,
Qu'il en eftime l'un, et me permette l'autre.

Pompée, At iv. Sc. 3.

The laft clafs comprehends fentiments that are unnatural, as being fuited to no character nor paffion. Thefe may be fubdivided into three branches firft, fentiments unfuitable to the conftitution of man, and to the laws of his nature; fecond, inconfiftent fentiments; third, fentiments 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

But an imperfect imitation is a venial fault, compared with that of running cross to nature. In the Hippolytus of Euripides*, Hippolytus, wishing for another felf in his own fituation, How much (fays 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.

Öfmyn. Yet I behold her-yet-and now no more.
Turn your lights inward, Eyes, and view my thought.
So fhall you still behold her-'twill not be.
O impotence of fight! mechanic sense
Which to exterior objects ow'ft thy faculty,
Not seeing of election, but neceffity.
Thus do our eyes, as do all common mirrors,
Succeffively reflect fucceeding images.

Nor what they would, but muft; a star or toad;
Just as the hand of chance administers!

Mourning Bride, A&t 11. Sc. 8.

No man, in his fenfes, ever thought of applying his eyes to discover what paffes in his mind; far lefs of blaming his eyes for not seeing a thought or idea. In Moliere's L'Avaret, Harpagon being robbed of his money, feizes himself by the arm, mistaking it for that of the robber. And again he expreffes himself as follows:

Je veux aller querir la justice, et faire donner la queftion à toute ma maison; à fervantes, à valets, à fils, a fille, et a moi auffi.

This

* A&t iv. Sc. 5.

+ A&t iv. Sc. 7.

This is fo abfurd as fcarce to provoke a smile, if

it be not at the author.

Of this fecond branch the following are ex

amples.

-Now bid me rún,

And I will strive with things impoffible,

Yea get the better of them.

Fulius Cæfar, A& 11. Sc. 3.

Vos mains feules ont droit de vaincre un invincible.

Le Cid, A v. Sc. laft.

Que fon nom foit beni. Que fon nom foit chanté,
Que l'on celebre fes ouvrages

Au de la de l'eternité.

Efther, A&t v. Sc. laft.

Me miferable! which way fhall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell: myself am hell;
And in the loweft deep, a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide;
To which the hell I fuffer feems a heav'n.

Paradife loft, Book iv.

Of the third branch, take the following famples,

Lucan, talking of Pompey's fepulchre,

-Romanum nomen, et omne

Imperium Magno eft tumuli modus, Obrue faxa
Crimine plena deum. Si tota eft Herculis Oete,
Et juga tota vacant Bromio Nyfeia; quare

Unus

Unus in Egypto Magno lapis? Omnia Lagi
Rura tenere poteft, fi nullo cespite nomen
Hæferit. Erremus populi, cinerumque tuorum,

Magne, metu nullas Nili calcemus arenas. L. 8. 1. 798.

Thus in Row's tranflation:

Where there are feas, or air, or earth, or skies,
Where-e'er Rome's empire ftretches, Pompey lies.
Far be the vile memorial then convey'd !
Nor let this stone the partial gods upbraid.
Shall Hercules all Oeta's heights demand,
And Nyfa's hill for Bacchus only ftand;
While one poor pebble is the warrior's doom
That fought the cause of liberty and Rome?
If Fate decrees he must in Egypt lie,
Let the whole fertile realm his grave supply,
Yield the wide country to his awful shade
Nor let us dare on any part to tread,

Fearful we violate the mighty dead.

The following paffages are pure rant. Coriolanus, fpeaking to his mother,

What is this?

Your knees to me? to your corrected fon ?
Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach
Fillop the ftars: then let the mutinous winds
Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery fun :
Murd'ring impoffibility, to make

What cannot be, flight work.

Coriolanus, Act v. Sc. 3.

Cæfar.

Danger knows full well,

That Cæfar is more dangerous than he.

We

We were two lions litter'd in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible.

Almabide. This day

Julius Cæfar, A& 11. Sc. 4.

I gave my faith to him, he his to me.

Almanzor. Good Heav'n, thy book of fate before

me lay

But to tear out the journal of this day.
Or if the order of the world below,

Will not the gap of one whole day allow,

Give me that minute when she made that vow,

That minute ev'n the happy from their bliss might give, And those who live in grief a shorter time would live, So fmall a link if broke, th' eternal chain,

Would like divided waters join again.

Conqueft of Grenada, A&t 111,

Almanzor.

I'll hold it faft

As life and when life's gone, I'll hold this last.

And if thou tak'ft after 1 am flain,

I'll fend my ghost to fetch it back again.

Conqueft of Grenada, Part 2. A&t 111,

Lyndiraxa. A crown is come, and will not fate allow,

And yet I feel fomething like death is near.

My guards, my guards

Let not that ugly skeleton appear.

Sure Destiny mistakes; this death's not mine;
She doats, and means to cut another line.
Tell her I am a queen-but 'tis too late;
Dying, I charge rebellion on my fate;
Bow down, ye flaves

Bow