My wife! my wife! What wife! I have no wife;
Oh infupportable! O heavy hour!

Othello, at 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 cafe fhould take the lead in contradiction to reafon and confcience: fuch a ftate 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 is covered from the world, and disclosed only to the beloved object :

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

Boileau, L'art poet. chant. 3. 1. 101.

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

Hence a capital rule in the reprefentation of immoderate paflions, that they ought to be hid or diffembled as much as poflible. And this holds in an especial manner with refpect to criminal paflions: one never counfels the commiffion of a crime in plain terms guilt muft not appear in its native colours, even in thought the propofal muft be made by hints, and by representing the action in fome favourable light. Of the propriety of fentiment upon fuch an occafion, Shakefpear, in the Tempest, has given us a beautiful example, in a fpeech by the

* See chap. 2. part 7.

ufurping

ufurping Duke of Milan, advifing Sebaftian to murder his brother the King of Naples :

Antonio.

-What might,

Worthy Sebaftian,-O, what might-no more.

And yet methinks, I fee it in thy face,

What thou thouldt be: th' occasion speaks thee, and
My strong imagination fees a crown
Dropping upon thy head.

Act 2. fc. 1.

There never was drawn a more complete picture of this kind, 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 fleth There is a foul counts thee her creditor, 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 heav'n, Hubert, I'm almost afham'd To fay what good refpect I have of thee.

Hubert. I am much bounden to your Majefty.

King John. Good friend, thou haft no caufe to fay fo
yet-

But thou shalt have-and creep time ne'er fo flow,
Yet it shall come for me to do thee good.

I had a thing to fay--but let it go;
The fun is in the heay'n; and the proud day,
Attended with the pleatures 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 draw fy 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

Hau bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy-thick,

Which elfe runs tickling up and down the veins,
Making that idiot Laughter keep men's eyes,
And train their cheeks to idle merriment,
(A paffion hateful to my purpofes ;)

Or if that thou couldt fee me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, ufing conceit alone,
Without eyes, ears, and harmful found of words;
Then, in defpite of broad-ey'd watchful day,
1 would into thy bolom 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 act,
By Heav'n, I'd do't.

K. John. Do not I know thou wouldst?

Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye
. On yon young boy. I'll tell thee what, my friend;
He is a very ferpent in my way.

And, wherefoe'er this toot of mine doth tread,
He ties before me. Dolt thou understand me?
Thou art his keeper.
King John, at 3.Sc. 5.

As things are beft illuftrated by their contraries, I proceed to faulty fentiments, difdaining to be indebted for examples to any but the most approved authors. The firft clafs fhall confift of fentiments that accord not with the paffion; or, in other words, fentiments that the paflion does not naturally fuggeft. In the fecond clafs, fhall be ranged fentiments that may belong to an ordinary paffion, but unfuitable to it as tinctured by a fingular character. Thoughts that properly are not fentiments, but rather defcriptions, make a third. Sentiments that belong to the paffion represented, but are faulty as being introduced too early or too late, make a fourth. Vicious fentiments expofed in their native dress, instead of being concealed or disguised, make a fifth. And in the laft clafs, fhall be collected fentiments fuited to no character nor paffion, and therefore unnatural.

The

The first class contains faulty fentiments of various kinds, which I fhall endeavour to diftinguish from each other; beginning with fentiments that are faulty by being above the tone of the paffion:

Othello.

O my foul's joy!

If after every tempeft come fuch calms,

May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
And let the labouring bark climb hills of feas

Olympus high, and duck again as low

As hell's from heaven!

Othello, act 2. fc. 6.

This fentiment may be fuggefted by violent and inflamed paffion, but is not fuited to the calm fatiffaction that one feels upon escaping danger.

Philafter. Place me fome god, upon a pyramid
Higher than hills of earth, and lend a voice
Loud as your thunder to me, that from thence
I may difcourfe to all the under-world
The worth that dwells in him.

Philafter of Beaumont and Fletcher, act 4.

Second. Sentiments below the tone of the paffion. Ptolemy, by putting Pompey to death, having incurred the difpleafure of Cæfar was in the utmost dread of being dethroned: in that agitating fituation, Corneille makes him utter a fpeech full of cool reflection, that is in no degree expreffive of the paffion.

Ah! fi je t'avois crû, je n'aurois pas de maitre,
Je ferois dans le trône où le Ciel m'a fait naître;
Mais c'est une imprudence affez commune aux rois,
D'écouter trop d'avis, et fe tromper aux choix.
Le Deftin les aveugle au bord du précipice,
Où fi quelque lumiere en leur ame fe gliffe,

Cette

Cette fauffe clarté dont il les eblouit,

Le plonge dans une gouffre, et puis s'evanouit.

La morte de Pompée, act̃ 4. fc. 1.

In Les Freres ennemies of Racine, the fecond act is opened with a love fcene: Hemon talks to his mif tress of the torments of abfence, of the luftre of her eyes, that he ought to die no where but at her feet, and that one moment of abfence is a thoufand years. Antigone on her part acts the coquette; pretends the must be gone to wait on her mother and brother, and cannot ftay to liften to his courtship. This is odious French gallantry, below the dignity of the paffion of love it would fcarce be excufable in painting modern French manners; and is infufferable where the ancients are brought upon the stage. The manners painted in the Alexandre of the fame author are not more juft: French gallantry prevails there throughout.

:

Third. Sentiments that agree not with the tone of the paffion; as where a pleafant fentiment is grafted upon a painful paffion, or the contrary. In the following inftances the fentiments are too gay for a ferious paffion:

No happier task thefe faded eyes purfue;
To read and weep is all they now can do.
Eleifa to Abelard, l. 47.

Again,

Heav'n first taught letters for fome wretch's aid,
Some banith'd lover, or fome captive maid ;

They live, they fpeak, they breathe what love infpires,
Warm from the foul, and faithful to its fires;
The virgin's with without her fears impart,
Excufe the bluth, and pour out all the heart;
Speed the foft intercourfe from foul to foul,
Aud waft a sigh from Indus to the pole..

Elaija to Abelard, 1. 5t.
Thefe