Let me touch

Thy hand, and touch the cordial of thy lips.

It would be wrong not to continue such melody. I copy some lines more, taken from this harp of "love and song."

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day: It was the nightingale and not the lark, That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yon pomegranite tree: Believe me, Love, it was the nightingale.

Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale

I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

Jul. Yon light is not day light, I know it well. Then stay awhile, thou shalt not go so soon. Rom. Ah! Farewell, my Love! one kiss, and I'll begone.

Jul. Art thou gone so? Love! Lord! Ah Hus-
band, Friend!

I must hear from thee every day in th' hour,
For in love's hours there are many days:
Oh! by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo.

Oh, thinkst thou we shall ever meet again?
Rom. I doubt it not.

Jul. Oh Heavens! I have an ill divining soul, Methinks I see thee, now thou'rt parting from me As one, dead in the bottom of a tomb!

I think all this excessively sweet-pre-eminently natural and tender. I beg to notice to the reader the great propriety of the repetition of the second line of Juliet's address respecting the nightingale. Likewise, the judgment of making her commence her discourse by the tender interrogatory of, "Wilt thou begone, Love?" I also notice the great naturalness of these two lines,

Yon light is not daylight, I know it well.

I must hear from thee every day in the hour. I further remark the hurried eagerness, and fond delight, with which she catches the phial from the Friar, the contents of which are to induce the drowsiness which afterwards terminates so fatally. Jul. (Taking the phial.) Give me! Oh, give me! Tell me not of fear.

1

But extracts would multiply on me without end, from this interesting and perfectly Italian drama. One would almost think that Shakespeare sat amid the "starry skies and cloudless climes" of the calm and classic Italy. That he felt the warm inspiration and the voluptuous dreaming of a poet born in the amorous and sunny south; and that the spirits of Tasso, Catullus, and Ariosto hovered about him, while his rich and rapid pen was sketching off (vivid and beautiful) the warm and

love breathing scenes of his delightful

66

Romeo

and Juliet." 'Tis nothing but love, and warmth, and imagination, and voluptuous attachment from beginning to end. All the picture is sketched in Italian painting. 'Tis all sunny hues and warm dyes. Fervour, and fondness, and most magical sweetness flow and irradiate from his pen while it is pourtraying the scenes and characters of this highly wrought drama.* The music which is to be found in its scenes, is I think superior to any other tones struck from the harp that this master of surpassing melody knew so well how to sweep. The chords of it are all strung to love. Blighted and unhappy, but fond and overwhelming love is his theme; and with mighty and magic touches

* I refer the reader to the conversation between Nurse and Juliet, in the fifth scene of the second act, and request of him to mark the infinite effect of the repetition of

Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me what says my love!

I also refer him to the vivid and love breathing soliloquy of

Gallop apace, ye fiery footed steeds!

Here mark the force of "love performing night," and "leap to these arms."

*

with tones of dark and most melancholy woe, he tells a tale of love

That tale of true love, that never did run smooth! Romeo is a most difficult character to perform. I shall own to the reader that (like the "Doricourt" of Mrs. Cowley) I never saw it performed yet. It requires so many things to act this character, that I almost despair of ever having the pleasure of seeing it correctly done. Feeling and judgment are indispensably necessary to perform the part. So it is with that master pieceHamlet. I would however draw this distinction. There is (of the two) more of feeling than judgment, required in acting Romeo-more of judgment than feeling in acting Hamlet. Romeo is completely made, to tell

A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear

Such as would please.

I refer the reader to the part where he is first introduced, for the "first sitting" (if I may use the term) of his character. You are there told, not who, but what he is. I here adduce another instance of the judgment of this creator. Romeo is made to fall in love with a person whom he has as yet had no conversation with. This is romantic-and 'tis characteristic because romantic

and 'tis dramatic because characteristic. I here will readily grant that it does not evince common sense; but this quality we really must forget in the lover. In this latter character the master wished to pourtray him, and he has accordingly throughout, done so. The acutest reader cannot find any scene-any word which does not evince the pensive but at the same time fervid lover. I know nothing more perfectly insinuating than his first brilliant but yet retiring address to Juliet at the masquerade.

If I profane, with my unworthy hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this.

The brilliancy consists in the last line-the timidness is expressed in the words " profane and "unworthy." I also quote his second and third replies to Juliet as instances of this insinuating manner.

The reader will here permit me (and perhaps he will understand the character the better) to draw a distinction between genteel manners and insinuating manners. I affirm then that a person may be genteel-nay, that he may be very genteel, and yet not be in the slightest degree insinuating; but-a person cannot be insinuating without being eminently genteel. Insinuating manners are, in a