Shakspeare are heavy and improbable spectacles. I do not dispute that they contain beautiful passages. I am not going, don't be afraid, to deny his mèrits, but only to say, that he has been more praised, not, perhaps, than he may be found to deserve, but than he has been read. His plots are quite extravagant, his characters are often caricatures, and the stars of his poetry are so involved amidst clouds of mediocrity, that a stranger, without a guide, migh look for them all the livelong night of the shortest day, and probably not find one of them." "When I see you so inclined to be peremptory," replied Benedict, "I think it is always best to let you have the argument your own way. But surely, my love, you do not intend to maintain that Shakspeare is not the greatest genius among the moderns ?" "Of the comparative greatness of his genius I was saying nothing," cried the Nymph more sharply than was consistent with conjugal subordination, "but only that his dramas are very dull; yea, and very absurdly constructed. Can any thing be worse, as a piece of art, than "Hamlet," which we have this evening endeavoured to endure throughout? I say endeavoured; for, notwithstanding your affected adoration of the few and far between passages of nature and poetry which it contains, I was often under more apprehension for the consequences of your yawning, than for the dramatic result of any one incident." 66 Why," exclaimed the Bachelor, "nobody goes to see a play of Shakspeare from any curiosity with respect to the result of the scenes, as connected with the story, but to consider how far the personations of the actors come up to the ideas we form of the characters by having studied them in our closets." "Now look ye, friend," said the Nymph briskly, "does not that proceed from a preconceived, or preadopted, opinion of some superior excellence in his delineation of character? and yet, find me two critics who are agreed whether Hamlet is to be considered as serious, or half-mad, or pretending to be so? Look how lame and impotent the conclusion of the plot is, compared to what was to be expected from the introduction of a prelude so solemn as the appearance of a ghost! But I will not make a stand merely on the mechanical part of his dramas-the construction of the fable;-some of his noblest passages are not superior to similar passages in the plays of his contemporaries. Take down his works, and give me those of Beaumont and Fletcher, and I will match you." Benedict, as all obedient husbands should do, when so required, to keep peace in the house, acquiesced; and when the books were arranged before them, he opened Cymbeline, and said,—“ Here is a description of the military enthusiasm of a boy,-match it if you can." "This Paladour (whom The king his father call'd Guiderius) Jove! "Good," said Egeria, "very good," turning over the leaves of the Maid's Tragedy; but here is Melantius' account of the heroic aspirations of Amintor while a boy, and it is better:" "When he was a boy, As oft as I returned (as, without beast, I brought home conquest), be would gaze upon me, "But," exclaimed the Bachelor, opening As You like It,"find me any thing half so touching and romantic as the moralizing of Jaques ?" "To-day my lord of Amiens and myself Duke. But what said Jaques ? Did he not moralize this spectacle? : 1 Lord. Oh, yes, into a thousand similes And never stays to greet him: Ay, quoth Jaques, 'Tis just the fashion," &c. "I am quite as sensible as you can be," said Egeria," to all the beauty of that passage; but it is not so romantic as this in Philaster,-nor so poetical, nor withal more pathetic:"— "I have a boy Sent by the gods I hope to this intent, Not yet seen in the court. Hunting the buck Of which he borrowed some to quench his thirst, Which gave him roots, and of the crystal springs That could be wish'd, so that methought I could "There is, however, nothing in all Beaumont and Fletcher," said Benedict, "half so tender, innocent, and delicate as the answer of Julia, when disguised as a boy, on being asked how tall Julia was:" "About my stature; for at Pentecost, When all our pageants of delight were play'd, "In the Maid's Tragedy," replied Egeria, "I have an allusion to the same story of Ariadne. Aspatia, forsaken by her lover, finds her maid Antiphila working a picture of Ariadne, and says,”— "But where's the lady? Ant. There, madam. |