quy is upon an important fubject that makes a strong impreffion, but without much agitation. For if it be at all excufable to think aloud, it is neceffary that the language with the reasoning be carried on in a chain without a broken link. In this view that admirable foliloquy in Hamlet upon life and immortality, being a ferene meditation upon the most interesting of all fubjects, ought to escape cenfure. And the fame confideration will justify the foliloquy that introduces the 5th act of Addison's Cato.

The next class of the groffer errors which all writers ought to avoid, fhall be of language elevated above the tone of the sentiment; of which take the following instan

ces.

Zara. Swift as occafion, I

yet

Who knows

Myself will fly; and earlier than the morn
Wake thee to freedom. Now 'tis late; and
Some news few minutes past arriv'd, which feem'd
To shake the temper of the King
What racking cares disease a monarch's bed?
Or love, that late at night still lights his lamp,
And strikes his rays through dusk, and folded lids,

Forbidding

Forbidding reft, may stretch his eyes awake,
And force their balls abroad at this dead hour,

I'll try. ⠀

Mourning Bride, act 3. Sc. 4.

The language here is undoubtedly too pompous and laboured for defcribing fo fimple a circumftance as absence of fleep. In the following paflage, the tone of the language, warm and plaintive, is well fuited to the paffion, which is recent grief. But every one will be fenfible, that in the laft couplet fave one, the tone is changed, and the mind suddenly elevated to be let fall as fuddenly in the last couplet.

Il détefte à jamais fa coupable victoire,
Il renonce à la cour, aux humains, à la gloire;
Et fe fuïant lui-même, au milieu des deferts,
Il va cacher fa peine au bout de l'univers ;
La, foit que le foleil rendît le jour au monde,
Soit qu'il finît fa course au vaste sein de l'onde,
Sa voix faifoit redire aux echos attendris,
Le nom, le trifte nom, de fon malheureux fils.
Henriade, chant. viii. 229.

Language too artificial or too figurative
Ff

VOL. II.

for

for the gravity, dignity, or importance, of the occafion, may be put in a third class.

Chimene demanding justice against Rodrigue who killed her father, instead of a plain and pathetic expoftulation, makes a fpeech stuffed with the most artificial flowers

of rhetoric:

Sire, mon pere eft mort, mes yeux ont vû fon fang
Couler à gros bouillons de fon généreux flanc;
Ce fang qui tant de fois garantit vos murailles,
Ce fang qui tant de fois vous gagna des batailles,
Ce fang qui, tout forti fume encore de courroux
De fe voir répandu pour d'autres que pour vous,
Qu'au milieu des hazards n'ofoit verfer la guerre,
Rodrigue en votre cour vient d'en couvrir la terre.
J'ai couru fur le lieu fans force, et fans couleur;
Je l'ai trouvé fans vie. Excufez ma douleur,
Sire; la voix me manque à ce récit funeste,
Mes pleurs et mes foupirs vous diront mieux le
reste.

And again:

Son flanc etoit ouvert, et, pour mieux m'emouvoir,
Son fang fur la pouffiére écrivoit mon devoire;
Ou plûtôt fa valeur en cet état réduite
Me parloit par fa plaie, et hâtoit ma pursuite,

Et

Et pour se faire entendre au plus jufte des Rois, Par cette trifte bouche elle empruntoit ma voix. Act 2. Sc. 9.

Nothing can be contrived in language more averse to the tone of the paffion than this florid fpeech. I should imagine it more apt to provoke laughter than to inspire concern or pity.

In a fourth class shall be given fpecimens of language too light or airy for a fevere paffion.

The agony a mother must feel upon the favage murder of two hopeful fons, rejects all imagery and figurative expreffion, as difcordant in the highest degree. Therefore the following paffage is undoubtedly in a bad tafte:

Queen. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes,

My unblown flow'rs, new-appearing sweets!
If yet your gentle fouls fly in the air,
And be not fixt in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
Ff2

And

And hear your mother's lamentation.

Again,

Richard III. a 4. fc. 4.

K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your child.

Conftance. Grief fills the room up of my abfent

child,

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garment with his form;
Then have I reafon to be fond of grief.

King John, at 3. Sc. 6.

A thought that turns upon the expreffion instead of the fubject, commonly called a play of words, being low and childish, is unworthy of any compofition, whether gay or serious, that pretends to the smallest share of dignity. Thoughts of this kind make a fifth class.

In the Aminta of Taffo * the lover falls into a mere play of words, demanding how

*Act 1. fc. 2.

he