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Article REFLECTIONS UPON TRAGEDY. Page 1 of 3 →
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Reflections Upon Tragedy.
REFLECTIONS UPON TRAGEDY .
FROM THE . FRENCH . A N Italian , author says , If tragedy , to distinguish -it from comedy **¦ - ^ - ought to be the representation of some terrible action , made to rouse sensibility , it maybe easily seen , that a tragedy , which contains neither an amorous intrigue , nor a marriage , but some atrocious deed ,
the cause of the greatest revolution that ever 'happened in the greatest empire of the world , is very far different from all the French tragedies , and mounted , if I may use the expression , upon a buskin much higher and much nobler than the rest . ' The rules of true tragedy arc contained in these few words . The springs which set the grand passions of the soul in motionif we .
ex-, cept love , an engine so often employed , are , without doubt , politics and ambition . Fanaticism , also , may cause very great revolutions ; but . I except this motive , which' is always violent , always sanguinary , and which can only cool people ' s zeal for religion , the first , the most sacred , and the most respectable of the duties of men . Thesethenare the springs which must be employed in tragedy
, , , if one wishes to deviate . from the'be . iten track , and to produce grand effects . What can be more insi pid , and less marked with novelty , _ than those pieces in which love is the sole passion of all the heroes , and which , for the greater part , whatever the scene of action rriay . be , contain nothing but a marrias-e cither concerted , crossed , or dissolved ?
Our great modem geniuses have already said every thing that can be written on that subject . We must , therefore ,- deviate from their manner , if we wish to acquire reputation , or to be handed down to posterity : if we copy them , in a servile-manner , -we expose ourselves to a comparison which mitst always be disadvantageous to us . Who has treated of love with more spirit and sensibility than Racine ? Who has painted it with more force and grandeur than
Corneilie ? And who has give ?! it more fury and violence than Crebillou ? If it be true that delicacy , impetuosity , and jealousy , are the characteristics of love , and if it be true that vengeance or generosity are its effects , who knew better than these three writers to represent it under those different points of view , and to describe its different affections ?
It must indeed be allowed , as is the common opinion , that this passion is so general , and so varied , according to the different objects who are exposed to it , that it seems to be inexhaustible , and that it exhibits a multitude of pictures , each of which has its peculiar shades , tints , and colouring ; but the principal traits in those pictures will always be the sameand the design will be monotonous ; in a wordit
, , will-be the same subject , delineated by twenty painters : there will be nothing peculiar to each , but the details ; the masses wili be common to all . VOL . Vlll . h
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reflections Upon Tragedy.
REFLECTIONS UPON TRAGEDY .
FROM THE . FRENCH . A N Italian , author says , If tragedy , to distinguish -it from comedy **¦ - ^ - ought to be the representation of some terrible action , made to rouse sensibility , it maybe easily seen , that a tragedy , which contains neither an amorous intrigue , nor a marriage , but some atrocious deed ,
the cause of the greatest revolution that ever 'happened in the greatest empire of the world , is very far different from all the French tragedies , and mounted , if I may use the expression , upon a buskin much higher and much nobler than the rest . ' The rules of true tragedy arc contained in these few words . The springs which set the grand passions of the soul in motionif we .
ex-, cept love , an engine so often employed , are , without doubt , politics and ambition . Fanaticism , also , may cause very great revolutions ; but . I except this motive , which' is always violent , always sanguinary , and which can only cool people ' s zeal for religion , the first , the most sacred , and the most respectable of the duties of men . Thesethenare the springs which must be employed in tragedy
, , , if one wishes to deviate . from the'be . iten track , and to produce grand effects . What can be more insi pid , and less marked with novelty , _ than those pieces in which love is the sole passion of all the heroes , and which , for the greater part , whatever the scene of action rriay . be , contain nothing but a marrias-e cither concerted , crossed , or dissolved ?
Our great modem geniuses have already said every thing that can be written on that subject . We must , therefore ,- deviate from their manner , if we wish to acquire reputation , or to be handed down to posterity : if we copy them , in a servile-manner , -we expose ourselves to a comparison which mitst always be disadvantageous to us . Who has treated of love with more spirit and sensibility than Racine ? Who has painted it with more force and grandeur than
Corneilie ? And who has give ?! it more fury and violence than Crebillou ? If it be true that delicacy , impetuosity , and jealousy , are the characteristics of love , and if it be true that vengeance or generosity are its effects , who knew better than these three writers to represent it under those different points of view , and to describe its different affections ?
It must indeed be allowed , as is the common opinion , that this passion is so general , and so varied , according to the different objects who are exposed to it , that it seems to be inexhaustible , and that it exhibits a multitude of pictures , each of which has its peculiar shades , tints , and colouring ; but the principal traits in those pictures will always be the sameand the design will be monotonous ; in a wordit
, , will-be the same subject , delineated by twenty painters : there will be nothing peculiar to each , but the details ; the masses wili be common to all . VOL . Vlll . h