< The next class of the groffer errors which all writers ought to avoid, shall be of language ele-\ vated above the tone of the fentiment; of which take the following inftances. Zara. Swift as occafion, I Myfelf will fly; and earlier than the morn Mourning Bride, act 3. fc. 4. The language here is undoubtedly too pompous and laboured for defcribing fo fimple a circumstance as abfence of fleep. In the following paffage, the tone of the language, warm and plaintive, is well fuited to the passion, which is recent grief: but every one will be fenfible, that in the last couplet fave one, the tone is changed, and the mind fuddenly elevated to be let fall as fuddenly in the last couplet: Il déteft à jamais fa coupable victoire, Il renonce à la cour, aux humains, à la gloire; Il va cacher fa peine aut bout de l'univers; Là, La, foit que le foleil rendit le jour au monde, Henriade, chant. viii. 229. Language too artificial or too figurative for the gravity, dignity, or importance, of the occa fion, may be put in a third class. Chimene demanding justice against Rodrigue who killed her father, inftead of a plain and pathetic expoftulation, makes a fpeech stuffed with the most artificial flowers of rhetoric: Sire, mon pere eft mort, mes yeux ont vû fon fang Sire; la voix me manque à ce recit funefte, Mes pleurs et mes foupirs vous diront mieux le refte. And again, Son flanc étoit ouvert, et, pour mieux m'emouvoir, Ou Ou plûtôt fa valeur en cet êtat réduite Me parloit par fa plaie, et hâtoit ma pursuite, Et pour fe faire entendre au plus jufte des Rois, Nothing can be contrived in language more averse to the tone of the paffion than this florid speech: I should imagine it apt more to provoke laughter than to inspire 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 tafte. Queen. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes! My unblown flow'rs, new appearing fweets! If yet your gentle fouls fly in the air, Richard III. act 4. fc. 4. Again, K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your VOL. I. child. Kk Confiance. Conftance. Grief fills the room up of child, my abfent Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, King John, act 3. fc. 6. A thought that turns upon the expreffion inftead of the fubject, commonly called a play of words, being low and childifh, is unworthy of any composition, whether gay or serious, that pretends to any degree of elevation: thoughts of this kind make a fifth clafs. 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 reafon, the following paffage in Corneille has been generally condemned: Chimene. Mon pere eft mort, Elvire, et la premiere épée Dont s'eft armée Rodrigue a fa trame coupée. * Aa 1. fc 2. Cid, act. 3. fe. 3. Το To die is to be banish'd from myself: Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 3. f. 3. Countefs. I pray thee, Lady, have a better cheer: If thou ingroffeft all the griefs as thine, Thou robb'ft me of a moiety. All's well that ends well, at 3. fe. 3. K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, fick with civil blows! When that my care could not with-hold thy riots, Second part Henry IV. at 4. fc. 11. Cruda Amarilli, che col nome ancora Paftor Fido, at 1. fc. 2 Antony, fpeaking of Julius Cefar: O world! thou waft the foreft of this hart: L Julius Cæfar, act 3. fc. 3. Playing thus with the found of words, which is ftill worse than a pun, is the meanest of all con |