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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
Wake thee to freedom. Now 'tis late; and yet
Some news few minutes past arriv'd, which feem'd
To shake the temper of the King.--Who knows
What racking cares difeafe a monarch's bed?
Or love, that late at night still lights his lamp,
And strikes his rays through dufk, and folded lids,
Forbidding reft, may ftretch his eyes awake,
And force their balls abroad at this dead hour.
I'll try.

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;
Et fe fuïant lui-même, au milieu des deferts,

Il va cacher fa peine aut bout de l'univers;

Là,

La, foit que le foleil rendit le jour au monde,
Soit qu'il finit fa courfe au vafte feine de l'onde,
Sa voix faifoit redire aux echos attendris,
Le nom, le trifte nom, de fon malheureux fils.

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
Couler à gros bouillons de fon généreux flanc;
Ce fang qui tant de fois garantit vos murailles,
Ce fang qui tant de fois vous gagna des þattailes,
Ce fang qui, tout sorti, fume encore de courroux
De fe voir répandu pour d'autres que pour vous,
Qu'au milieu des hazards n'ofoit verfer la guerre,
Rodrigue en votre cour vient d'en couvrir la terre.
J'ai couru fur le lieu fans force, et fans couleur :
Je l'ai trouvé fans vie. Excufez ma douleur,

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,
Son fang fur la pouffiere écrivoit mon devoir;

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,
Par cette trifte bouche elle empruntoit ma voix.
Act 2. fc. 9.

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,
And be not fixt in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation.

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,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuff's out his vacant garment with his form;
Then have I reafon to be fond of grief.

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.
Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez-vous en eau,
La moitié de ma vie a mis l'autre au tombeau,
Et m'oblige à venger, après ce coup funcfie,
Celle que je n'ai plus, fur celle que me refte.

* Aa 1. fc 2.

Cid, act. 3. fe. 3.

Το

To die is to be banish'd from myself:
And Sylvia is myself; banish'd from her,
Is felf from felf; a deadly banishment!

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,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.

Second part Henry IV. at 4. fc. 11.

Cruda Amarilli, che col nome ancora
D'amar, ahi laffo, amaramente infegni.

Paftor Fido, at 1. fc. 2

Antony, fpeaking of Julius Cefar:

O world! thou waft the foreft of this hart:
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, ftriken by many princes,
Doft thou here lie!

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

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