The second class 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 laft act of that excellent comedy, The Careles Hufland, Lady Eafy, upon Sir Charles' reformation, is made to exprefs more violent and turbulent fentiments of joy, than are confiftent with the mildness of her character:

Lady Eafy. O the foft treafure! O the dear reward of long defiring love. -Thus! thus to have you mine, is fomething more than happiness; 'tis double life, and madnefs of abounding joy.*

If the fentiments of a paffion ought to be fuited to a peculiar character, it is ftill more neceffary that actions be fuited to the character. In the 5th act of. the Drummer, Addifon makes his gardner act even below the character of an ignorant credulous ruftic: he gives him the behaviour of a gaping idiot.

The following inftances are defcriptions rather than fentiments, which compofe a third class.

Of this defcriptive manner of painting the paffions, there is in the Hyppolitus of Euripides, act 5, an illuftrious inftance, namely, the fpeech of Thefeus, upon hearing of his fon's difmal exit. In Racine's tragedy of Ether, the Queen hearing of the decree iffued against her people, inftead 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.

Aman. C'en eft fait. Mon orgueil eft forcé de plier. L'inexorable Aman eft reduit à prier.

Efther, act 3. Sc. 5.

Athalie. Quel prodige nouveau me trouble et m'embar

ralle?

La douceur de fa voix, fon enfance, fa grace,
Font infenfiblement à mon inimitié
Succeder-Je ferois fenfible à la pitié ?

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 but defcribing the paffion another feels?

A man ftabbed to the heart in a combat with his enemy expreffes himself thus:

So, now I am at reft:

I feel death rifing higher ftill, and higher,
Within my bofom; every breath I fetch
Shuts up my life within a fhorter compass :
And like the vanishing found of bells, grows lefs
And lefs each pulfe, 'till it be lost in air.

Dryden.

Captain Flash, in a farce compofed by Garrick, endeavours to hide his fear by faying, "What a damn'd paffion I am in."

An example is given above of remorfe and despair expreffed by genuine and natural fentiments. In the fourth book of Paradife Loft, Satan is made to exprefs his remorse and defpair in fentiments, which, though beautiful, are not altogether natural: they are rather the fentiments of a fpectator, than of a perfon who actually is tormented with these paffions.

The fourth clafs is of fentiments introduced too early or too late.

Some

Some examples mentioned above belong to this clafs. Add the following from Venice Preferv'd, act 5, at the close of the fcene between 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 most perturbed fentiments. Inftead of which he diffolves into tendernefs 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 past ?
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 thofe eyes that weep in fondnels o'er thee:
Peace to thy heart.

Immoral fentiments expofed in their native colours, inftead of being concealed or difguifed, com. pofe 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 spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unfex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direct cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th' accefs and paffage to remorse,
That no compunctious vifitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose.

Macbeth, act 1. Sc. 7.

This fpeech is not natural. A treacherous murder was never perpetrated even by the moft hardened miscreant, without compunction: and that the lady here must have been in horrible agitation, a p

A a 3

pears

pears from her invoking the infernal spirits to fill her with cruelty, and to ftop up all avenues to remorse. But in that ftate of mind, it is a never-failing artifice of felf-deceit, to draw the thickeft veil over the wicked action, and to extenuate it by all the circumftances that imagination can fuggeft and if the crime cannot bear aiiguife, the next attempt is to thruit it out of mind altogether, and to rush on to action without thought. This laft was the hul band's method:

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they muit be scann'd.

Act 3. Sc. 5.

The lady follows neither of thefe courfes, but in a deliberate manner endeavours to fortify her heart in the commiffion of an execrable crime, without even attempting to colour it. This I think is not natural, I hope there is no fuch wretch to be found as is here represented. In the Pompey of Corneille,* Photine counfels a wicked action in the plaineft terms without difguife:

Seigneur, n'attirez point le tonnerre en ces lieux,
Rangez vous du parti des deftins et des dieux,
Et fans les accufer d'injuftice, ou d'outrage;
Puis qu'ils font les heureux, adorez leur ouvrage ;
Quels que foient leurs decrets, déclarez-vous pour eux,
Et pour leur obéir, perdez le mal hereux.
Prefs de touts parts des colérés celeftes,

Il en vient deffus vous faire fondre les reftes;
Et fa tête qu'à peine il a pû dérober,
Tout prête dechoir, cherche avec qui tomber.
Sa retraite chez vous en effet n'eft qu'un crime;
Elle marque fa haine, et non pas son estime;
Il ne vient que vous perdre en venant prendre port,
Et vous pouvez douter s'il eft digne de mort!
Il devoit mieux remplir nos vœux et notre attente,
Faire voir fur, fes nefs la victoire flotante;

Il n'eût ici trouvé que joye et que festins;
Mais puifqu'il eft vaincu qu'il s'en prenne aux deftins,
J'en veux à fa difgrace et non à fa perfonne,
J'exécute à regret ce que le ciel ordonne,
Et du même poignard, pour Céfar deftiné,
Je perce en foupirant fon coeur infortuné.
Vous ne pouvez enfin qu' aux dépens de fa tête
Mettre à l'abri la vôtre, et parer la tempête.
Laillez nommer fa mort un unjuste attentat,
La justice n'eft pas une vertu d'état.

Le choix des actions, ou mauvaises, ou bonnes,
Ne fait qu' anéantir la force des couronnes;
Le droit des rois confifte à ne rien épargner;
La timide équité détruit l'art de regner;

Quand on craint d'être injufte on a toûjours à craindre;
Et qui veut tout pouvoir doit ofer tout enfraindre,
Fuir comme un defhonneur la vertu qui le pert,
Et voler fans fcrupule au crime qui lui fert.

In the tragedy of Esther,* Haman acknowledges without difguife, his cruelty, infolence, and pride. And there is another example of the same kind in the Agamemnon of Seneca. In the tragedy of Athalie, Mathan, in cool blood, relates to his friend many black crimes he had been guilty of, to fatisfy his ambition.

In Congreve's Double-dealer, Mafkwell, inftead of difguifing or colouring his crimes, values himself upon them in a foliloquy :

Cynthia, let thy beauty gild my crimes; and whatfoever I commit of treachery or deceit, fhall be imputed to me as a merit- -Treachery! what treachery? Love cancels all the bonds of friendship, and fets men right upon their first foundations. Act 2. fc. 8.

of being hid or dif

In French plays, love, inftead guifed, is treated as a ferious concern,

and of greater

* A&t 2. fc. 1. + Beginning of act 2. ‡ Act 3. fc. 3. at the close.