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stead of venting any passion, degenerates into a cool spectator, and undertakes to instruct the bystanders how a queen ought to behave on such an occasion :

Viriate. It m'en fait voir ensemble, et 'lauteur, et la cause
Par cet assassinat c'est de moi qu'on dispose,
C'est mon trône, c'est moi qu'on pretend conquerir ;
Et c'est mon juste choix qui seul l'a fait perir.
Madame, après sa perte, et parmi ces alarmes,
N'attendez point de moi de soupirs, ni de larmes;
Ce sont amusements que dédaigne aisement
Le prompte et noble orgueil d’un vif ressentiment.
Qui pleure, l'affoiblit; qui soupire, l'exhale ;
Et ma douleur soumise aux soins de le venger, &c.

Act V. Sc. 3,

So much in general upon the genuine sentiments of passion. I proceed to particular observations. And, first, passions seldom continue uniform any considerable time: they generally fluctuate, swelling and subsiding by turns, often in a quick succession ;* and the sentiments cannot be just unless they correspond to such fluctuation. Accordingly, climax never shows better than in expressing a swelling passion: the following passages may suffice for an illustration.

Oroonoko. Can you raise the dead ?
Pursue and overtake the wings of time?
And bring about again, the bours, the days,
The years that made me happy?

Oroonoko, Act II. Sc. 2.

Almeria. -How hast thou charm'd
The wildness of the waves and rocks to this?
That thus relenting they have giv'n thee back
To earth, to light and life, to love and me?

Mourning Bride, Act I. Sc. 7.

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I would not be the villain that thou think'st

For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp,
And the rich earth to boot.

Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 4.

The following passage expresses finely the progress of conviction.

Let me not stir, nor breathe, lest I dissolve
That tender, Lovely form, of painted air,
So like Almeria. Ha! it sinks, it falls;
I'll catch it e'er it goes, and grasp her shade.
'Tis life! 'tis warm! 'tis she! 'tis she herself!
It is Almeria, 'tis, it is my wife!

In the

Mourning Bride, Act II. Sc. 6.

progress of thought, our resolutions become

more vigorous as well as our passions :

If ever I do yield or give consent,

By an action, word, or thought, to wed

Another lord; may then just heav'n show'r down, &c.

Ibid. Act I. Sc. 1.

And this leads to a second observation. That the different stages of a passion, and its different directions, from birth to extinction, must be carefully represented in their order; because otherwise the sentiments, by being misplaced, will appear forced and unnatural. Resentment, for example, when provoked by an atrocious injury, discharges itself first upon the author: sentiments therefore of revenge come always first, and must in some measure be exhausted before the person injured think of grieving for himself. In the Cid of Corneille, Don Diegue having been affronted in a cruel manner, expresses scarce any sentiment of revenge, but is totally occupied in contemplating the low situation to which he is reduced by the affront:

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O rage ! ô desespoire ! ô vieillesse ennemie !
N'ai je donc tant vecu que pour cette infamie?
Et ne suis-je blanchi dans les trauvaux guerriers.
Que pour voir en un jour fletrir tant de lauriers ?
Mon bras, qu'avec respect toute l'Espagne admire
Mon bras, qui tant de fois a suavé cet empire,
Tant de fois affermi le trône de son Roi,
Trahit donc ma querelle, et ne fait rien pour moi!
O cruel souvenir de ma gloire passée !
Oeuvre de tant de jours en un jour effacée !
Nouvelie dignité fatale à mon bonheur !
Precipice elevé doù tombe mon honneur!
Faut il de votre eclat voir triompher le Comte.
Et mourir sans vengeance, ou vivre ns la honte ?
Comte, sois de mon Prince à present governeur,
Ce haut rang n'admet point un homme sans honneur ;
Et ton jaloux orgueil par cet affront insigne,
Malgre le choix du Roi, m'en a sû rendre indigne.
Et toi, de mes exploits glorieux instrument,
Mais d'un corps tout de glace inutile ornement,
Fer jadis tant à craindre, et qui dans cette offense,
M'as servi de parade, et pon pas de defense,
Va, quitté desormais le dernier des humains,
Passe pour me venger en de meilleures mains.

Le Cid, Act I. Sc. 7. · These sentiments are certainly not the first that are suggested by the passion of resentment. the first movements of resentment are always directed to its object, the very same is the case of grief. Yet with relation to the sudden and severe distemper that seized Alexander bathing in the river Cydnus, Quintus Curtius describes the first emotions of the army as directed to themselves, lamenting that they were left without a leader, far from home, and had scarce any hopes of returning in safety: their King's distress, which must naturally have been their first concern, occupies them but in the second place, according to that author. In the Aminta of Tasso, Sylvia, upon a report of her lover's death, which she believed certain, instead of bemoaning the loss of her beloved, turns

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her thoughts upon herself, and wonders her heart does not break:

Ohime, ben son di sasso,

Poi che questa novella non m'uccide.

Act IV. Se. 2.

In the tragedy of Jane Shore, Alicia, in the full purpose of destroying her rival, has the following reflection:

Oh jealousy! thou bane of pleasing friendship,
Thou worst invader of our tender bosoms;
How does thy rancour poison all our softness,
And turn our gentle natures into bitternes ?

See where she comes! once my heart's dearest blessing,
Now my changed eyes are blasted with her beauty,
Loathe that known face, and sicken to behold her.

Act III. Sc. 1.

These are the reflections of a cool spectator. A passion while it has the ascendant, and is freely indulged, suggests not to the person who feels it any sentiment to its own prejudice: reflections like the foregoing occur not readily till the passion has spent its vigour.

A person sometimes is agitated at once by different passions; and the mind, in that case, vibrating like a pendulum, vents itself in sentiments that partake of the same vibration. This I give as a third observation:

Queen. 'Would I had ne'er trod this English earth,
Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!

Ye've angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts.
What shall become of me now? wretched lady!
I am the most unhappy woman living.

Alas! poor wenches, where are now your fortunes?

Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity,
No friends, no hope! no kindred weep for me!
Almost no grave allow'd me.

To her women.

Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 1.

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Othello. Oh devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.
Out of my sight!
Desdemona. I will not stay t' offend you.

(going Lodovico. Truly, an obedient lady: I do beseech your lordship, call her back.

Oth, Mistress
Des. My Lord.
Oth. What would you with her, Sir?
Lod. Who, I, iny Lord ?

Oih. Ay; you did wish that I would make her turn:
Sir, she can turn and turn, and yet go on ;
And turn again. And she can weep, Sir, weep :
And she's obedient; as you say, obedient;
Very obedient-proceed you in your tears-
Concerning this, Sir-oh well painted passion!
I am commanded home-get you away,
I'll send for you anon-Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice.- -Hence, avaunt!

[Erit Desdemong. Othello, Act IV. Sc. 6.

Æmilia. Oh! my good Lord, I would speak a word with you.

Othello. Yes, 'tis Æmilia-By and by-She's dead.
'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death :
The noise was high--Ha! no more moving?
Still as the grave.

Shall she come in? were't good ?
I thiok she stirs again--No-What's the best?
If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife ;
My wife! my wife! What wife ; I have no wise ;
Oh josupportable! O heary hour!

Othello, Act IV. Sc. 7.

A fourth observation is, That nature, which gave us passions, and made them extremely beneficiał when moderate, intended undoubtedly that they should be subjected to the government of reason and conscience. * It is therefore against the order of nature, that, passion in any case should take the

See chapter II. part vii,

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