In French plays, love, instead of being hid or disguised, is treated as a serious concern, and of greater importance than fortune, family, or dignity. I fufpect the reafon to be, that in the capital of France, love, by the eafinefs of intercourse, has dwindled down from a real paffion to be a connection that is regulated entirely by the mode or fashion *. This may in fome measure excufe their writers, but will never make their plays be relished among foreigners. Maxime. Quoi, trahir, mon ami! Euphorbe. -L'amour rend tout permis, Cinna, alt 3. fc. I. Un véritable amant ne connoît point d'amis. Cefar. Reine, tout eft paifible, et la ville cal mée, Qu'un trouble affez leger avoit trop alarmée, * A certain author fays humourously, "Les mots mêmes "d'amour et d'amant font bannis de l'intime fociété des deux "fexes, et relegués avec ceux de chaine et de flame dans les "Romans qu'on ne lit plus." And where nature is once ba. nished, a fair field is open to every fantastic imitation, even the most extravagant. N'a N'a plus à redouter le divorce intestin Du foldat infolent, et du peuple mutin. Mais, ô Dieux! ce moment que je vous ai quittée, Plus pour le conferver, que pour vaincre Pompée. Je l'ai vaincu, Princeffe, et le Dieu de combats rer; Et vos beaux yeux enfin m'ayant fait foûpirer, Pompée, at 4. fc. 3. The laft clafs comprehends fentiments that are unnatural, as being fuited to no character nor paffion. These may be subdivided into three branches: firft, fentiments unfuitable to the conftitution of man and the laws of his nature; fecond, inconfiftent fentiments; third, fentiments that are pure rant and extravagance. When the fable is of human affairs, every event, every incident, and every circumftance, ought to be natural, otherwise the imitation is imperfect. But an imperfect imitation imitation is a venial fault, compared with that of running crofs to nature. In the Hippolytus of Euripides*, Hippolytus, wishing for another felf in his own fituation, How much (fays he) should I be touched with his misfortune! as if it were natural to grieve more for the misfortunes of another than for one's own. Ofmyn. Yet I behold her-yet- and now no more. Turn your lights inward, Eyes, and view my thought, So fhall you still behold her-'twill not be. Which to exterior objects ow'ft thy faculty, Nor what they would, but must; a star or toad; Mourning Bride, at 2. fc. 8. ap❤ No man, in his fenfes, ever thought of plying his eyes to discover what paffes in his mind; far lefs of blaming his eyes for not * Act 4. fc. 5. feeing seeing a thought or idea. In Moliere's L'Avare*, Harpagon being robbed of his money, feizes himself by the arm, mistaking it for that of the robber. And again he expreffes himself as follows: Je veux aller querir la justice, et faire donner la question à toute ma maison; à fervantes, à valets, a fils, à fille, et à moi auffi. This is so abfurd as scarce to provoke a smile if it be not at the author. Of the fecond branch the following are examples. Now bid me run And I will strive with things impoffible, Yea get the better of them. Julius Cæfar, aɛt 2. fc. 3. Vos mains feules ont droit de vaincre un invincible. Le Cid, at 5. Sc. last. Que fon nom foit beni. Que fon nom foit chanté. Que l'on celebre fes ouvrages Au de la de l'eternité. * Act 4. fc. 7. Efther, at 5. fc. last. Me |