Et ton jaloux orgueil par cet affront infigne,
Malgré le choix du Roi, m'en a fû rendre indigne.
Et toi, de mes exploits glorieux inftrument,
Mais d'un corps tout de glace inutile ornement,
Fer jadis tant à craindre, et qui dans cette offense
M'as fervi de parade, et non pas de defenfe,
Va, quitte deformais le dernier des humains,
Paffe pour me vanger en de meilleures mains.
Le Cid, act 1. fc. 4-

Thefe fentiments are certainly not what occur to the mind in the first movements of the paffion. In the same manner as in refentment, the first movements of grief are always directed upon its object. Yet with relation to the fudden and fevere diftemper that feized Alexander bathing in the river Cydnus, Quintus Curtius describes the first emotions of the army as directed upon themselves, lamenting that they were left without a leader far from home, and had scarce any hopes of returning in fafety. Their King's diftrefs, which must naturally have been their first concern, occupies them but in the second place, according to that author In the Aminta of Taffo, Sylvia, upon a report of her lover's death, which the believed certain, inftead of bemoaning the lofs of a beloved objec, turns her thoughts upon herself; and wonders her heart does not break.

Ohime, ben fon di faffo,

Poi che questa novella non m' uccide.

Act 4. fc. 2:.

In the tragedy of Jane Shore, Alicia, in the fulk purpose of deftroying her rival has the following: reflection:

Oh Jealoufy thou bane of pleafing friendship,
Thou worst invader of our tender bofoms;
How does thy rancour poifon all our foftnefs,

And

And turn our gentle natures into bitterness? See where the comes! Once my heart's dearest bleffing,

Now my chang'd eyes are blafted with her beauty, Loathe that known face, and ficken to behold her. Act 3. fc. 1.

These are the reflections of a cool fpectator. A paffion while it has the afcendant, and is freely indulged, fuggefts not to the man who feels it any fentiment to its own prejudice. Reflections like the foregoing, occur not to him readily till the paffion hath spent its vigor.

A perfon fometimes is agitated at once by different paffions. The mind in this cafe vibrating like a pendulum, vents itself in fentiments which partake of the fame vibration. This I give as a third obfervation:

Queen. 'Would I had never trod this English earth,, Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!

Ye've angels faces, but Heav'n knows your hearts..
What shall become of me now! wretched lady!
I am the most unhappy woman living.

Alas! poor wenches, where are now your fortunes?
[To her women..
Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity,
'No friends, no hope! no kindred weep for me!
Almoft, no grave allow'd me.

Henry VIII. act 3. fc. 1.

Othello. Oh devil, devil!

If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop fhe falls, would prove a crocodile.
Out of my fight.

Desdemona. I will not stay t' offend you. [going.
Lodovico. Truly, an obedient lady :

I do beseech your Lordship, call her back..
Oth. Miftrefs
Def. My Lord.

Oth.

Oth. What would you with her, Sir?
Lod. Who, I, my Lord?.

Oth. Ay; you did with that I would make her turn:
Sir, fhe can turn and turn, and yet go on;
And turn again. And the can weep, Sir, weep;
And she's obedient: as you fay, obedient;
Very obedient-proceed you in your tears-
Concerning this, Sir,-oh well-painted paffion!
I am commanded home- get you away,

I'll fend for you anon-Sir, I obey the mandate, And will return to Venice...

Hence, avaunt! [Exit Defdemona.. Othello, act 4. fc. 6.

Emilia. Oh my good Lord, I would speak a word with you...

Othello. Yes, 'tis Emilia- by and by-fhe's dead 'Tis like, the comes to speak of Caffio's death; The noise was high. Ha, no more moving? Still as the grave. Shall the come in? wer't good? I think the ftirs again-No-what's the best? If the comes in, fhe'll, fure, fpeak to my wife; My wife! my wife! What wife? I have no wife.. Oh insupportable! oh heavy hour!

Othello, act 5. fc. 7..

A fourth obfervation is, that nature, which gave us paffions, and made them extremely beneficial when moderate, intended undoubtedly that they fhould be fubjected to the government of reafon and confcience*. It is therefore against the order of nature, that paffion in any case should take the lead in contradiction to reason and confcience. Such a state of mind is a fort of anarchy, which every one is afhamed of, and endeavours to hide or diffemble.. Even love, however laudable, is attended with a confcious fhame when it becomes immoderate: it

*See chap. 2. part 7.

is

is covered from the world, and disclosed only to the

beloved object:

Et que l'amour fouvent de remors combattu
Paroiffe une foibleffe, et non une vertu..

Boileau, L'art poet. chant. 3. l. 101.

O, they love least that let men know their love.. Two Gentlemen of Verona, act. 1. fc. 3..

Hence a capital rule in the reprefentation of strong. paffions, that their genuine fentiments ought to be hid or diffembled as much as poffible. And this holds in an especial manner with respect to criminal paffions. One never counfels the commiffion of a crime in plain terms. Guilt must not appear in its native colours, even in thought: the propofal must be made by hints, and by reprefenting the action in fome favourable light. Of the propriety of fentiment upon fuch an occafion, Shakespear, in the Tempeft, has given us a beautiful example. The fubject is a propofal made by the ufurping Duke of Milan to Sebastian, to murder his brother the King of Naples.

Antonio

What might

Worthy Sebastian-O, what might

And yet methinks, I fee it in thy face,

no more.

What thou should'ft be: th' occasion speaks thee, and My strong imagination fees a crown

Dropping upon thy head:

Act 2. fc. I.

There cannot be a finer picture of this fort, than that of King John foliciting Hubert to murder the young Prince Arthur.

K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle
Hubert,

We owe thee much; within this wall of flesh
There is a foul counts thee her creditor,

And

And with advantage means to pay thy love.
And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath
Lives in this bofom, dearly cherished.
Give me thy hand, I had a thing to fay
But I will fit it with fome better time.
By Heaven, Hubert, I'm almost asham'd
To lay what good refpect I have of thee.
Hubert. I am much bounden to your Majesty.
K. Jobn. Good friend, thou haft no cause to say
fo yet

But thou shalt have and creep time ne'er fo flow,
Yet it fhall come for me to do thee good.
I had a thing to fay-but, let it go:

The fun is in the heav'n, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,
Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds,
To give me audience. If the midnight-bell
Did with his iron tongue and brazen mouth
Sound one into the drowfy race of night;
If this fame were a church-yard where we ftand,
And thou poffeffed with a thousand wrongs:
Or if that furly fpirit Melancholy

Had bak'd thy blood and made it heavy-thick,
Which else runs tickling up and down the veins,
Making that idiot Laughter keep men's eyes,
And ftrain their cheeks to idle merriment,
(A paffion hateful to my purposes ;)

Or if that thou could'it fee me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, ufing conceit alone,
Without eyes, ears, and harmful founds of words;
Then, in defpight of broad-ey'd watchful day,
I would into thy bofom pour my thoughts.

But ah, I will not

Yet I love thee well;

And, by my troth, I think thou lov'ft me well.
Hubert. So well, that what you bid me undertake,.
Though that my death were adjunct to my a&t,
By Heav'n, I'd do't.

K. John.