WOLSEY, ON HIS FALL FROM GREATNESS. JAFFIER LAMENTING HIS RUINED STATE. GRIEF MODERATED BY PHILOSOPHY. CATO'S SPEECH ON THE DEATH OF HIS SON. Full in my sight; that I may view at leisure -Remember Thy life is not thine own, when Rome demands it. When Rome demands? But Rome is now no more; The Roman empire's fall'n! O curs'd ambition! Fall'n into Cæsar's hands! our great forefathers Farewell, my friends! If there be any of you Grief, softened by time and reflection, is called Regret or Tenderness, of which the following are examples. REGRET TENDERNESS. HAMLET, ON DISCOVERING YORICK'S SCULL. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jests; of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times: and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!-Here hung those lips, that I have kissed, I know not how oft. Where be your gibes, now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfall'n! Now get to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this complexion she must come: make her laugh at that. MR. BETTERTON'S FUNERAL.-TATLER. Having received notice, that the famous actor Mr. Betterton, was to be interred this evening in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. I was resolved to walk thither, and see the last offices done to a man whom I had always very much admired, and from whose acting I had received more strong impressions of human nature, than from the arguments of the most solid philosophers, or the descriptions of the most charming poets I had ever read. Such an actor as Mr. Betterton ought to be recorded with the same respect as Roscius among the Romans. For I have hardly a notion that any performer of antiquity could surpass his acting in any of the occasions in which he has appeared on our stage; so that while I walked in the cloisters, I thought of him with the same concern as if I waited for the remains of a person, who in real life had done all I had seen him represent. The gloom of the place, and faint lights before the ceremony appeared, contributed to the melancholy disposition I was in; and I began to be extremely afflicted that Brutus and Cassius had any difference; that Hotspur's gallantry was so unfortunate; and the mirth and humour of Falstaff could not exempt him from the grave. Nay, this occasion in me, who look upon the distinctions amongst men to be merely scenical, raised reflections upon the emptiness of all human perfection and greatness in general: and I could not but regret, that the sacred heads which lie buried in the neighbourhood of this little portion of earth in which my poor old friend is deposited, are returned to dust as well as he, and that there is no difference in the grave between the imaginary and the real monarch. GRIEF AND DISTRACTION. CONSTANCE LAMENTING PRINCE ARTHUR. K. Phil. Patience, good lady, comfort, gentle Constance. But that which ends all counsel, true redress, Come grin on me; and I will think thou smil'st, MELANCHOLY. MELANCHOLY, or fixed grief, is gloomy, sedentary, motionless. The lower jaw falls; the lips pale, the eyes are cast down, half shut, eye-lids swollen and red, or livid, tears trickling silent and unperceived; with a total inattention to every thing that passes. Words, if any, few; and those dragged out, rather than spoken; the accents weak and interrupted, sighs breaking into the middle of sentences and words. Melancholy, when softened by time, assumes a less gloomy character, and may more properly be termed Pensiveness; in which stage it is not always unpleasing. This sort of Philosophical Melancholy, is admirably described by Milton, Collins, and other poets.. PERSONIFICATION OF MELANCHOLY. With eyes uprais'd, as one inspir'd, Pale melancholy sat retir'd; And from her wild sequester'd seat, In notes by distance made more sweet, Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul, And dashing soft from rocks around, Bubbling runnels join'd the sound; Through glades and glooms, the mingled measures stole. Or o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay, Round an holy calm diffusing Love of peace, and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away. MELANCHOLY FROM "IL PENSEROSO." -hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy, Whose saintly visage is too bright Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of Folly, SADNESS. Foreboding, or anticipation of any unfortunate event that may happen, produces the species of melancholy called Sadness, as in the following Examples:- ANTONIO, DOUBTFUL OF HIS VENTURES AT SEA. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad, It wearies me, you say it wearies you; But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff 'tis made of, whereof 'tis born, I am to learn-and such a want wit sadness makes of me, HENRY VI. WAITING NEWS FROM HIS ARMY. This battle fares like to the morning's war, When dying clouds contend with glowing light; What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, Can neither call it perfect day, or night, Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea, 'Would I were dead! if God's good will were so : For what is in this world, but grief and woe? O God! methinks, it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely swain; To sit upon a hill as I do now, To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, Thereby to see the minutes how they run. RICHARD II. ON BOLINGBROKE'S REVOLT AND SUCCESS. Of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes, Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let's chuse executors, and talk of wills; To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks, Bores through his castle-wall, and-farewell king,— DESPONDENT MELANCHOLY. VALENTINE IN HIS BANISHMENT. any, Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain ! PHILOSOPHIC MELANCHOLY, OR PENSIVENESS. The nature of philosophic melancholy is well described by, and exemplified in, the character of Jaques, in Shakespeare's "As you Like it," who in the following speech, after describing various kinds of melancholy, explains the nature of his own; which it is to be observed however, has a mixture of cynical |