I could a tale unfold, whofe lighteft word Would harrow up thy foul, freeze thy young blood, And each particular hair to ftand on end, Hamlet, act 1. fc. 8. Gratiano. Poor Defdemona! I'm glad thy father's dead Thy match was mortal to him; and pure grief Shore his old thread in twain. Did he live now, This fight would make him do a defperate turn: Yea, curfe his better angel from his fide, And fall to reprobation. Othello, act 5. fc. 8. Objects of horror must be excepted from the foregoing theory; for no defcription, however lively, is fufficient to overbalance the difguft raifed even by the idea of fuch objects. Every thing horrible ought therefore to be avoided in a defcription. Nor is this a fevere law: the poet will avoid fuch scenes for his own fake, as well as for that of his reader; and to vary his defcriptions, nature affords plenty of objects that difguft us in fome degree without raifing horror. I am obliged therefore to condemn the picture of Sin in the fecond book of Paradife Loft, though a masterly performance: the original would be a horrid fpectacle; and the horror is not much Toftened in the copy: Penfive here I fat Alone; but long 1 fat not, till my womb, T Tora Tore through my intrails, that with fear and pain Ingendering with me, of that rape begot To me; for when they lift, into the womb Grim Death, my fon and foe, who fets them on, Book 2. 1. 777 Iago's character in the tragedy of Othello, is infufferably monstrous and Satanical: not even Shakespear's mafterly hand can make the picture agreeable. Though the objects introduced in the following fcenes are not altogether fo horrible as Sin is in Milton's defcription; yet with every person of del icacy, difguft will be the prevailing emotion: -Strophades Graio ftant nomine dictæ Infulæ Ionio in magno: quas dira Celano, Harpyiæque colunt alix: Phineia poftquam Claufa domus, menfafque metu liquere priores. Triftius Triftius haud illis monftrum, nec fævior ulla Huc ubi delati portus intravimus: eccel Læta boum paffim campis armenta videmus, Eneid, lib. iii. 210. Sum patria ex Ithaca, comes in felicis Ulyffei, T2 Eneid, lib. iii. 613. } CHAP. XXII. Epic and Dramatic Compofition. TRAGED RAGEDY differs not from the epic in fubftance in both the fame ends are purfued, namely, inftruction and amusement ; and in both the fame mean is employed, namely, imitation of human actions. They differ only in the manner of imitating: epic poetry employs narration; tragedy reprefents its facts as paffing in our fight: in the former, the poet introduces himself as an hiftorian; in the lat ter, he presents his actors, and never himself.* This difference regarding form only, may be thought flight but the effects it occafions, are by no means fo; for what we fee makes a deeper impreffion than what we learn from others. A narra tive * The dialogue in a dramatic compofition diftinguishes it fo clearly from other compofitions, that no writer has thought it neceffary to fearch for any other diflinguifhing mark. But much useless labour has been bellowed, to diftinguifh an epic poem by fome peculiar mark. Boffu defines it to be, "A compofition in verfe, intended to form the manners by inftructions difguifed under the allegories of an important action;" which excludes every epic poem founded upon real facts, and perhaps includes feveral of fop's fables. Voltaire reckons verfe fo effential, as for that fingle reafon to exclude the adventures of Telemachus. See his Effay upon Epic Poetry. Others, affected with fubflance more than with form, hefitate not to pronounce that poem to be epic.It is not a little diverting to fee fo many profound critics hunting for what is not they take for granted, without the leaft foundation, that there must be fome precife criterion to diftinguifh epic poetry from every other fpecies of writing. Literary compofitions run into each other, precifely like colours in their ftrong tints they are cafily diftinguished, but are fufceptible of fo much variety, and of fo many different forms, that we never can fay where one fpecies ends and another begins. As to the general tafle, there is little reafon to doubt, that a work where heroic actions are related in an elevated flyle, will, without further requi fite, be deemed an epic poem, tive poem is a story told by another facts and incidents pafling upon the ftage, come under our own obfervation; and are befide much enlivened by action and gefture, expreffive of many fentiments beyond the reach of words. A dramatic compofition has another property, independent altogether of action; which is, that it makes a deeper impreffion than narration in the former, perfons exprefs their own fentiments; in the latter, fentiments are related at fecond hand. For that reafon, Ariftotle, the father of critics, lays it down as a rule, That in an epic poem the author ought to take every opportunity of introducing his actors, and of confining the narrative part within the narrowest bounds.* Homer understood perfectly the advantage of this method; and his two poems abound in dialogue. Lucan runs to the oppofite extreme, even fo far as to ftuff his Pharfalia with cold and languid reflections: the merit of which he alfumes to himself, and deigns not to fhare with his actors. Nothing can be more injudicioufly timed, than a chain of such reflections, which fufpend the battle of Pharfalia after the leaders had made their speeches, and the two armies are ready to engage.t Ariftotle, regarding the fable only, divides tragedy into fimple and complex: but it is of greater moment, with refpect to dramatic as well as epic poetry, to found a diftinction upon the different ends attained by fuch compofitions. A poem, whether dramatic or epic, that has nothing in view but to move the paffions and to exhibit pictures of virtue and vice, may be diftinguifhed by the name of pathetic: * Poet. chap. 25. feat. 6. Lib. 7. from line 385, to line 460. |