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Shakspeare are heavy and improbable spectacles. I do not dispute that they contain beautiful passages. I am not going, don't be afraid, to deny his merits, but only to say, that he has been more praised, not, perhaps, than he may be found to deserve, but than he has been read. His plots are quite extravagant, his characters are often caricatures, and the stars of his poetry are so involved amidst clouds of mediocrity, that a stranger, without a guide, might look for them all the livelong night of the shortest day, and probably not find one of them.”

"When I see you so inclined to be peremptory," replied Benedict, "I think it is always best to let you have the argument your own way. But surely, my love, you do not intend to maintain that Shakspeare is not the greatest genius among the moderns ?"

"Of the comparative greatness of his genius I was saying nothing," cried the Nymph more sharply than was consistent with conjugal subordination, "but only that his dramas are very dull; yea, and very absurdly constructed. Can any thing be worse, as a piece of art, than "Hamlet," which we have this evening endeavoured to endure throughout? I say endeavoured; for, notwithstanding your af fected adoration of the few and far between passages of nature and poetry which it contains, I was often under more apprehension for the consequences of your yawning, than for the dramatic result of any ̈ one incident."

"Why," exclaimed the Bachelor, “ nobody goes to see a play of Shakspeare from any curiosity with respect to the result of the scenes, as connected with the story, but to consider how far the personations of

the actors come up to the ideas we form of the characters by having studied them in our closets."

"Now look ye, friend," said the Nymph briskly, ❝ does not that proceed from a preconceived, or preadopted, opinion of some superior excellence in his delineation of character? and yet, find me two critics who are agreed whether Hamlet is to be considered as serious, or half-mad, or pretending to be so? Look how lame and impotent the conclusion of the plot is, compared to what was to be expected from the introduction of a prelude so solemn as the appearance of a ghost! But I will not make a stand merely on the mechanical part of his dramas-the construction of the fable;-some of his noblest passages are not superior to similar passages in the plays of his contemporaries. Take down his works, and give me those of Beaumont and Fletcher, and I will match you."

Benedict, as all obedient husbands should do, when so required, to keep peace in the house, acquiesced; and when the books were arranged before them, he opened Cymbeline, and said,—“ Here is a description of the military enthusiasm of a boy,—match it if you

can."

"This Paladour (whom

The king his father call'd Guiderius) Jove!
When on my three-foot stool I sit, and tell
The warlike feats I've done, his spirits fly out
Into my story: say thus mine enemy fell,
And thus I set my foot on's neck-even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats,
Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture
That acts my words."——

"Good," said Egeria, "very good," turning over the leaves of the Maid's Tragedy; but here is Melantius' account of the heroic aspirations of Amintor while a boy, and it is better :"

"When he was a boy,

As oft as I returned (as, without beast,

I brought home conquest), be would gaze upon me,
And view me round, to find in what one limb
The virtue lay to do those things he heard;
Then would he wish to see my sword, and feel
The quickness of the edge, and in his hand
Weigh it. He oft would make me smile at this;
His youth did promise much, and his ripe years
Will see it all performed."

"But," exclaimed the Bachelor, opening As You like It, "find me any thing half so touching and romantic as the moralizing of Jaques ?"

"To-day my lord of Amiens and myself
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood;
To the which place a poor sequestered stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans,
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy Jaques,
Stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook,
Augmenting it with tears.

Duke. But what said Jaques ?
Did he not moralize this spectacle?

1 Lord. Oh, yes, into a thousand similes :
First, for his weeping in the needless stream;
Poor deer, quoth he, thou mak❜st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much; then being alone,
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends:
'Tis right, quoth he, thus misery doth part
The flux of company: Anon a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,

And never stays to greet him: Ay, quoth Jaques,
Sweep on, ye fat and greasy citizens,

"Tis just the fashion," &c.

"I am quite as sensible as you can be," said Egeria," to all the beauty of that passage; but it is not so romantic as this in Philaster,-nor so poetical, nor withal more pathetic:"

"I have a boy

Sent by the gods I hope to this intent,

Not yet seen in the court. Hunting the buck
I found him sitting by a fountain-side,

Of which he borrowed some to quench his thirst,
And paid the nymph again as much in tears;
A garland lay by him, made by himself
Of many several flowers, bred in the bay,
Stuck in that mystic order that the rareness
Delighted me: but ever when he turn'd
His tender eyes upon them, he would weep,
As if he meant to make them grow again.
Seeing such pretty helpless innocence
Dwell in his face, I ask'd him all his story;
He told me, that his parents gentle died,
Leaving him to the mercy of the fields,

Which gave him roots, and of the crystal springs
Which did not stop their courses; and the sun
Which still, he thank'd him, yielded him his light.
Then took he up his garland, and did shew,
What every flower, as country people hold,
Did signify; and how all, order'd thus,
Express'd his grief; and to my thoughts did read
The prettiest lecture of his country art

That could be wish'd, so that methought I could
Have studied it."-

"There is, however, nothing in all Beaumont and Fletcher," said Benedict, "half so tender, innocent, and delicate as the answer of Julia, when disguised as a boy, on being asked how tall Julia was:"

"About my stature; for at Pentecost,

When all our pageants of delight were play'd,
Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimm'd in madam Julia's gown.
And at that time I made her weep a-good,
For I did play a lamentable part.
Madam, 'twas Ariadne passioning
For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight;
Which I so lively acted with my tears,
That my poor mistress, moved therewithal,
Wept bitterly, and would I might be dead,
If I in thought felt not her very sorrow."

"In the Maid's Tragedy," replied Egeria, "I have an allusion to the same story of Ariadne. Aspatia, forsaken by her lover, finds her maid Antiphila working a picture of Ariadne, and says,”

"But where's the lady?

Ant. There, madam.

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