Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Poetical Language Of Tragedy Not Borrowed From Nature.
THE POETICAL LANGUAGE OF TRAGEDY NOT BORROWED FROM NATURE .
BY THE SAME
I KNOW , indeed , that critics have asserted figurative diction to be natural to persons labouring under strong emotions ; but for proof of this , assertion , I find quotations from Shakespear , instead of appeals to fact . One of the critics , and of no mean rank , has given as an example of the natural playfulness of a lover's imagination , Juliet ' s fancy of cutting out Romeo all into little stars when he is dead . I do not deny that a certain degree of mental
excitement ( to use modern phraseology ) may , like a cheerful glass , vivify the imagination , and impart a glow and fluency of expression ; but I never knew a real instance in which violent passion , like intoxication , did not overwhelm the intellectual faculties , and abolish all connection of thought and choice of language . But tragedy cannot consist of ahs and ohs , of exclamations' and broken sentences . Its
purpose is to deli ght , to instruct , to elevate , and , above all , to gratify the desire after novelty : the passion of tragedy is therefore necessarily made fluent , inventive , eloquent , metaphorical , and sententious . See how Milton characterises the tragic writers of the Grecian school : Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught In chorus and iambic , teachers best Of moral prudence , with delight receiv'd
In brief sententious precepts , while they treat ; Of fate , and chance , and change , in human life , High actions , and high passions best describing . PAR . REG . iv . 16 ; . It was evidently after this model that he framed his Sampson Agonistes and Comus , pieces , however ill adapted for the modern English stagewhich- will continue to charm andinstruct the
, . cultivated reader , as long as the language in which they are written exists . Nor would Shakespear himself , though peculiarly styled the bard of nature , have-afforded a whole school of poetry and morals , had his dialogue been a real pattern of that natural simplicity which is usually supposed-to characterise it . To eveiy impartial observer it will be manifest , that his " brief sententious precepts" are
generally brought in with effort : and that his sublime , and often far-fetched images , rather belong to the play-writer than to the speaker . The sweet Racine and the lofty Corneille communicated their own distinctions to all their characters , and were properly " describers of hi gh actions and hi gh passions" in their several styles . In short , if tragedy be not considered as a sublime poem , rather than a mere'fable to move the passions for a moral purpose , it will be impossible not to prefer the Gamester and George "Barnwell to any performance of Shakespear , Corneille , or Sophocles .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Poetical Language Of Tragedy Not Borrowed From Nature.
THE POETICAL LANGUAGE OF TRAGEDY NOT BORROWED FROM NATURE .
BY THE SAME
I KNOW , indeed , that critics have asserted figurative diction to be natural to persons labouring under strong emotions ; but for proof of this , assertion , I find quotations from Shakespear , instead of appeals to fact . One of the critics , and of no mean rank , has given as an example of the natural playfulness of a lover's imagination , Juliet ' s fancy of cutting out Romeo all into little stars when he is dead . I do not deny that a certain degree of mental
excitement ( to use modern phraseology ) may , like a cheerful glass , vivify the imagination , and impart a glow and fluency of expression ; but I never knew a real instance in which violent passion , like intoxication , did not overwhelm the intellectual faculties , and abolish all connection of thought and choice of language . But tragedy cannot consist of ahs and ohs , of exclamations' and broken sentences . Its
purpose is to deli ght , to instruct , to elevate , and , above all , to gratify the desire after novelty : the passion of tragedy is therefore necessarily made fluent , inventive , eloquent , metaphorical , and sententious . See how Milton characterises the tragic writers of the Grecian school : Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught In chorus and iambic , teachers best Of moral prudence , with delight receiv'd
In brief sententious precepts , while they treat ; Of fate , and chance , and change , in human life , High actions , and high passions best describing . PAR . REG . iv . 16 ; . It was evidently after this model that he framed his Sampson Agonistes and Comus , pieces , however ill adapted for the modern English stagewhich- will continue to charm andinstruct the
, . cultivated reader , as long as the language in which they are written exists . Nor would Shakespear himself , though peculiarly styled the bard of nature , have-afforded a whole school of poetry and morals , had his dialogue been a real pattern of that natural simplicity which is usually supposed-to characterise it . To eveiy impartial observer it will be manifest , that his " brief sententious precepts" are
generally brought in with effort : and that his sublime , and often far-fetched images , rather belong to the play-writer than to the speaker . The sweet Racine and the lofty Corneille communicated their own distinctions to all their characters , and were properly " describers of hi gh actions and hi gh passions" in their several styles . In short , if tragedy be not considered as a sublime poem , rather than a mere'fable to move the passions for a moral purpose , it will be impossible not to prefer the Gamester and George "Barnwell to any performance of Shakespear , Corneille , or Sophocles .