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"with a peacock's feather." The peacock's feather, not to mention the beauty of the object, completes the image. An accurate image cannot be formed of this fanciful operation, without conce ving a particular feather; and the mind is at fome lofs when this is not specified in the defcription. Again, "The rogues flighted me into the "river with as little remorse, as they would "have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen "i' th' litter *."

Old Lady. You would not be a queen?

Anne. No, not for all the riches under heaven... Old Lady. 'Tis ftrange: a three-pence bow'd would hire me, old as I am, to queen it.

Henry VIII. act 2, fc. 5.

In the following paffage, the action, with all its material circumftances, is reprefented fo much to the life, that it could not be better conceived by a real fpectator; and it is this manner of description which contributes greatly to the fublimity of the paffage.

He fpake; and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming fwords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim: the fudden blaze
Far round illumin'd hell: highly they rag'd
Against the Higheft, and fierce with grafped arms,
Clafh'd on their founding fhields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heav'n.
Milton, b. 1.
A paffage I am to cite from Shakespear, falls not
much fhort of that now mentioned in particularity
of description:

O you hard hearts! you cruel men of Rome!
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft

Merry Wives of Windfor, act 3. fc. 15.

Have

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Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms; and there have fat
The live-long day with patient expectation
To fee great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when you faw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tyber trembled underneath his banks,
To hear the replication of your founds,
Made in his concave fhores?

Julius Cæfar, að? 1. fc. 1.

The Henriade of Voltaire errs greatly against the foregoing rule: every thing is touched in a fummary way, without ever defcending to the circumftances of an event. This manner is good in a general history, the purpofe of which is to record important tranfactions: but in a fable, which hath a very different aim, it is cold and uninteresting; because it is impracticable to form diftinct images of perfons or things reprefented in a manner fo fuperficial.

It is obferved above, that every ufelefs circumftance ought to be fuppreffed. To deal in fuch cir cumftances, is a fault, on the one hand, not lefs to be avoided, than the concifenefs for which Voltaire is blamed, on the other. In the Eneid*, Barce, the nurfe of Sichæus, whom we never hear of be fore or after, is introduced for a purpose not more important than to call Anna to her fifter Dido. And that it might not be thought unjust in Dido, even in this trivial incident, to prefer her husband's nurfe before her own, the poet takes care to inform his reader, that Dido's nurfe was dead. To this I muft oppose a beautiful paffage in the fame book, where, after Dido's laft fpeech, the poet fuppofing her dead, haftens to deferibe the lamentation of her attendants: Dixerat:

* Lib. 4. 1. 632.

Dixerat: atque illam media inter talia ferro
Collapfam afpiciunt comites, enfemque cruore
Spumantem, fparfafque manus. It clamor ad alta
Atria, concuflam bacchatur fama per urbem ;
Lamentis gemituque et foemineo ululatu
Tecta fremunt, refonat magnis plangoribus æther.
Lib. 4. L. 663-

As an appendix to the foregoing rule, I add the following obfervation, That to raise a fudden and ftrong impreffion, fome fingle circumftance happily fele&ed, has more power than the moft laboured defcription. Macbeth, mentioning to his lady feme voices he heard while he was murdering the King, fays,

There's one did laugh in's fleep, and one cry'd Murder!

They wak'd each other; and I ftood and heard them;

But they did fay their prayers, and address them
Again to fleep.

Lady. There are two lodg'd together.

Macbeth. One cry'd, God blefs us! and, Amen!
the other;

As they had feen me with thefe hangman's hands.
Liftening their fear, I could not fay, Amen,
When they did fay, God bless us.

Lady. Confider it not fo deeply.

Macbeth. But wherefore could not I pronounce,
Amen?

I had moft need of bleffing, and Amen

Stuck in my throat.

Lady. Thefe deeds must not be thought After thefe ways; fo it will make us mad. Macbeth. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!

Macbeth doth murder fleep, &c.

Act 2. Sc.. 3.

Defcribing

Describing Prince Henry:

I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuiffes on his thighs, gallandy arm'd,
Rife from the ground like feather'd Mercury;
And vaulted with fuch eafe into his feat,
As if an angel dropt down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

First Part Henry IV. act. 4. fc. 2.

King Henry. Lord Cardinal, if thou think'ft on heaven's blifs.

Hold up thy hand, make fignal of thy hope.
He dies, and makes no fign!

Second Part of Henry VI. act. 3. fc. 10.

The fame author, fpeaking ludicroufly of an army debilitated with difeafes, fays,.

Half of them dare not shake the fnow from off their caflocks, left they shake themselves to pieces.

To draw a character is the mafter-stroke of defcription. In this Tacitus excels: his figures are natural, diftinct, and complete; not a feature wanting or mifplaced. Shakespear however exceeds Tacitus in the fprightlinefs of his figures: fome characteristical circumftance is generally invented or laid hold of, which paints more to the life than many words. The following inftances will explain my meaning, and at the fame time prove my observation to be just.

Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandfire cut in alabafter?

Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice,
By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio,
(I love thee, and it is my love that speaks :)
There are a fort of men, whose visages

Do

Do cream and mantle like a standing pond;
And do a wilful ftillness entertain,
With purpose to be drefs'd in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound-conceit;
As who fhould fay, I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!
O my Antonio, I do know of thofe,
That therefore only are reputed wife,
For faying nothing.

Again,

Merchant of Venice, act 1. fc. I.

Gratiano fpeaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reasons are two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you fhall feek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the fearch.

Ibid.

In the following paffage a character is completed by a fingle stroke.

Shallow. O the mad days that I have spent ; and to fee how many of mine old acquaintance are dead.. Silence. We fhall all follow, Coufin.

Shallow. Certain, 'tis certain, very fure, very fure; Death (as the Pfalmift faith) is certain to all: all fhall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?

Slender. Truly, Coufin, I was not there.

Shallow. Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet.

Silence. Dead, Sir.

Shallow. Dead! fee, fee; he drew a good bow: and dead? He shot a fine shoot. How a fcore of ewes now?

Silence. Thereafter as they be. A fcore of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shallow.

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