would be a still more fevere cenfure, if it should be afcribed to imitation, copying indifcreetly what has been faid by others. What though no weeping loves thy afhes grace, What though no facred earth allow thee room, Fifth. Fanciful or finical fentiments, fentiments that degenerate into point or conceit, however they may amuse in an idle hour, can never be the offfpring of any ferious or important paffion. In the Ferufalem of Taffo, Tancred, after a single combat, fpent with fatigue and lofs of blood, falls into a fwoon. In this fituation, understood to be dead, he is discovered by Erminia, who was in love with him to distraction. A more happy fituation cannot be imagined, to raise grief in an inftant to its higheft pitch and yet, in venting her forrow, fhe defcends most abominably to antithefis and conceit, even of the lowest kind. E in lui versò d' inefficabil vena Cant, 19. ft. 105. Armida's Armida's lamentation refpecting her lover Rinaldo*, is in the fame vitious taste. Queen. Give me no help in lamentation, I am not barren to bring forth complaints: All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes, That I, being govern'd by the wat❜ry moon, May fend forth plenteous tears to drown the world. Ah, for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward. King Richard III. act 2. fc. 2. Jane Shore. Let me be branded for the public fcorn, Give me your drops, ye foft-defcending rains, Jane Shore act 5. Jane Shore utters her last breath in a witty conceit. Then all is well, and I fhall fleep in peace'Tis very dark, and I have loft you now Was there not fomething I would have bequeath'd you? But I have nothing left me to bestow, Nothing but one fad figh. O mercy, Heav'n! [Dies.] Act 5. Gilford to lady Jane Gray, when both were con demned to die: * Canto 20. ftan. 124, 125, & 126. Thou Thou ftand'ft unmov'd ; ; Calm temper fits upon thy beauteous brow; Lady Jane Gray, act 4. near the end. The concluding fentiment is altogether finical, unfuitable to the importance of the occafion, and even to the dignity of the paffion of love. Corneille, in his Examin of the Cid*, anfwering an objection, that his fentiments are fometimes too much refined for perfons in deep distress, observes, that if poets did not indulge fentiments more ingenious or refined than are prompted by paffion, their performances would often be low; and extreme grief would never fuggeft but exclamations merely. This is in plain language to affert, That forced thoughts are more relished than fuch as are natural, and therefore ought to be preferred. The fecond clafs is of fentiments that may belong to an ordinary paffion, but are not perfectly concordant with it, as tinctured by a fingular character. In the last act of that excellent comedy, The Careless Husband, Lady Easy, upon Sir Charles's reformation, is made to exprefs more violent and turbulent fentiments of joy, than are confiftent with the mildnefs of her character. Lady Eafy. O the foft treafure! O the dear reward of le-defiring love-Thus thus to have you mine, is fomething more than happiness, 'tis double life, and madnefs of abounding joy. * Page 316., If If the fentiments of a paffion ought to be fuited to a peculiar character, it is ftill more neceffary that fentiments devoid of paffion be suited to the character. In the 5th act of the Drummer, Addifon makes his gardener act even below the character of an ignorant credulous ruftic: he gives him the behaviour of a gaping idiot. The following inftances are descriptions rather than fentiments, which compofe a third class. Of this defcriptive manner of painting the paflions, there is in the Hippolytus of Euripides, act 5. an illuftrious inftance, viz. the fpeech of Thefeus, upon hearing of his fon's difmal exit. In Racine's tragedy of Efther, the Queen hearing of the decree iffued against her people, instead of expreffing fentiments fuitable to the occafion, turns her attention upon herself, and defcribes with accuracy her own fituation. Jufte Ciel! Tout mon fang dans mes veines fe glace. Act 1. fc. 3. Again, Aman. C'en eft fait. Mon orgueil eft forcé de plier, L'inexorable Aman eft reduit a prier. Eftber, act 3. fc. 5. Athalie. Quel prodige nouveau me trouble et m embarrasse? La douceur de fa voix, fon enfance, fa grace, Athalie, act 2. fc. 7. Titus. O de ma paffion fureur defefperée! Brutus of Voltaire, act 3. fc. 6. What other are the foregoing inftances than de fcribing the paffion another feels? VOL. I. Ch. XVI. An example is given above of remorfe and defpair expreffed by genuine and natural fentiments. In the fourth book of Paradife Loft, Satan is made to exprefs his remorfe and defpair in fentiments, which though beautiful, are not altogether natural. They are rather the fentiments of a spectator, than of a person who actually is tormented with thefe paffions. The fourth clafs is of fentiments introduced too early or too late. Some examples mentioned above belong to this clafs. Add the following from Venice preferv'd, a& 5. at the clofe of the fcene betwixt Belvidera and her father Priuli. The account given by Belvidera of the danger fhe was in, and of her husband's threatening to murder her, ought naturally to have alarmed her relenting father, and to have made him exprefs the moft perturbed fentiments. Inftead of which he diffolves into tenderness and love for his daughter, as if he had already delivered her from danger, and as if there were a perfect tranquillity. Canft thou forgive me all my follies paft? I'll henceforth be indeed a father; never, Never more thus expofe, but cherish thee, Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life, Dear as thefe eyes that weep in fondness o'er thee: Peace to thy heart. Immoral fentiments expofed in their native colours, inftead of being concealed or disguised, compofe the fifth clafs. The Lady Macbeth projecting the death of the King, has the following foliloquy: The raven himself's not hoarfe That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come all you fpirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unfex me here, And fill me from the crown to th❜toe, top-full Of |