Ou plûtôt fa valeur en cet état réduite

Me parloit par se plaie, et hâtoit ma poursuite,
Et pour se faire entendre au plus jufte des Rois,
Par cette trifte bouche elle empruntoit ma voix.
Act 11. Sc. 9.

Nothing can be contrived in language more averse to the tone of the paffion than this florid fpeech: I should imagine it more apt to provoke laughter than to infpire concern or pity.

In a fourth clafs fhall be given fpecimens of language too light or airy for a fevere paffion.

Imagery and figurative expreffion are difcordant, in the highest degree, with the agony of a mother, who is deprived of two hopeful fons by a brutal murder. Therefore the following paffage is undoubtedly in a bad taste.

Queen. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes! My unblown flow'rs, new appearing sweets!

If yet your gentle fouls fly in the air,
And be not fixt in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation.

Richard III. A&t iv. Sc. 4.

Again,

K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your child.

VOL. I.

K k

Conftance.

Conftance. Grief fills the room up of my abfent 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 111. Sc. 6.

A thought that turns upon the expreffion inftead of the fubject, commonly called a play of words, being low and childish, is unworthy of any compofition, whether gay or ferious, that pretends to any degree of elevation: thoughts of this kind make a fifth class.

In the Amynta of Taffo*, the lover falls into a mere play of words, demanding how he who had loft himself, could find a miftrefs. And for the fame reason, the following paffage in Corneille has been generally condemned:

Chimene Mon pere eft mort, Elvire, et la premiere é, ée

Dont s'eft armée Rodrigue a fa trame coupée.
Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez-vous en eau,
La moitié de ma vie a mis l'autre au tombeau,
Et m'oblige à venger, après ce coup funefte,
Celle que je n'ai plus, fur celle que me refte.

Cid, Act 111. Sc. 3.

To

* A&t 1. Sc. 2.

To die is to be banish'd from myself:

And Sylvia is myself; banish'd from her,

Is felf from self; a deadly banishment!

Two Gentlemen of Verona, A& 111. Sc. 3.

Countefs. I pray thee, Lady, have a better cheer: If thou engroffeft all the griefs as thine,

Thou robb'ft me of a moiety.

All's well that ends well, Act 111. Sc. 3.

K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, fick 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. A&t iv. Sc. 11.

Cruda Amarilli, che col nome ancora
D'amar, ahi laffo, amaramente infegni.

Paftor Fido, Ac 1. Sc. 2.

Antony, speaking of Julius Cæfar:

O world thou waft the foreft of this hart;
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, ftricken by many princes,
Doft thou here lie!

Julius Cæfar, A&t 111. Sc. 3.

Playing thus with the found of words, which is ftill worse than a pun, is the meanest of all con

ceits. But Shakespeare, when he defcends to a play of words, is not always in the wrong; for it is done fometimes to denote a peculiar character, as in the following paffage :

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 wond'rous miracle;

The fhadow of myself form'd in her eye;
Which being but the shadow of your son,
Becomes a fun, and makes your fon 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.

Faulconbridge. 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 efpy
Himself Love's traitor: this is pity now,

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

King John, Act 11. Sc. 5.

A jingle of words is the lowest species of that low wit; which is fcarce fufferable in any cafe, and leaft of all in an heroic poem: and yet Milton, in some inftances, has defcended to that puerility:

And brought into the world a world of wo.

begirt th' Almighty throne

Befeeching

Befeeching or befieging

Which tempted our attempt

At one flight bound high overleap'd all bound.
With a fhout

Loud as from number without numbers.

One fhould think it unneceffary to enter a caveat against an expreffion that has no meaning, or no diftinct meaning; and yet fomewhat of that kind may be found even among good wriSuch make a fixth clafs.

ters.

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

Poffeffion of your earth:

If burnt and scatter'd in the air; the winds
That strew my duft, diffuse my royalty,

And spread me o'er your clime; for where one atom
Of mine fhall light, know there Sebastian reigns.

Dryden, Don Sebaftian King of Portugal, Act 1.

Cleopatra. Now, what news, my Charmion? Will he be kind? and will he not forsake me? Am I to live or die? nay, do I live? Or am I dead? for when he gave his answer, Fate took the word, and then I liv'd or dy'd. Dryden, All for Love, Act 11.

If the be coy, and fcorn my noble fire,

If her chill heart I cannot move;
Why, I'll enjoy the very love,

And make a mistress of my own defire.

Cowly, poem infcribed, The Request.

His