Le droit des rois consiste à ne rein épargner :
La timide équité détruit l'art de regner ;

Quand on craint d'étre injuste un a toûjour à craindre;
Et qui veut tout pouvoir doit oser tout enfraindre.
Fuir comme un deshonneur la vertu qui le pert,
Et voler sans scrupule au crime qui lui sert.

In the tragedy of Esther,* Haman acknowledges, without disguise, his cruelty, insolence, 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 satisfy his ambition.

In Congreve's Double-dealer, Maskwell, instead of disguising or colouring his crimes, values himself upon them in a soliloquy :

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

In French plays, love, instead of being hid or disguised, is treated as a serious concern, and of greater importance than fortune, family, or dignity. I suspect the reason to be, that, in the capital of France, love, by the easiness of intercourse, has dwindled down from a real passion to be a connexion that is regulated entirely by the mode or fashion. This may in some measure excuse their writers, but will never make their plays be relished among foreign

ers:

* Act II. Sc. 1.

Act III. Sc. 3. at the close.

+ Beginning of Act II.

A certain author says humorously, "Les mots mêmes d'amour et "d'amant sont bannis de l'intime société des deux sexes, et relegués avec ceux de chaine et de flame dans les Romans qu'on ne lit plus." And where nature is once banished, a fair field is open to every fantastic imitation, even the most extravagant.

Maxime. Quoi, trahir mon ami?

Euphorbe.

L'amour rend tout permis,

Un veritable amant ne connoît point d'amis.

Cinna, Act III. Sc. 1.

Cesar. Reine, tout est plaisible, et la ville calmée,
Qu'un trouble assez leger avoit trop alarmée,
N'a plus à redouter le divorce intestin

Du soldat insolent, et du peuple mutin.

Mais, ô Dieux! ce moment que je vous ai quittee,
D'un trouble bien plus grand à mon ame agitée,
Et ces soins importuns qui m'arrachoient de vous
Contre ma grandeur même allumoient mon courroux.
Je lui voulois du mal de m'étre si contraire,
De rendre me presence ailleurs si necessaire.
Mais je lui pardonnois au simple souvenir
Du bonheir qu'à ma flâme elle fait obtenir.
C'est elle dont je tiens cette haute espérance,
Qui flate mes desirs d'une illustre apparence,
Et fait croire à César qu'il peut former de vœux,
Qu'il n'est pas tout-à-fait indigne de vos feux,
Et qu'il peut en pretendre une juste conquête,
N'ayant plus que les Dieux au dessus de sa tête.
Oui, Reine, si quelq' un dans ce vaste univers
Pouvoit porter plus haut la gloire de vos fers;
S'il étoit quelque trone où vous pouissiez paroître
Plus dignement assise en captivant son maître,
J'irois, j'irois à lui, moins pour le lui ravir,
Que pour lui disputer le droit de vous servir;
Et je n'aspirerois au bonheur de vous plaire.
Qu'après avoir mis bas un si grand adversaire.
C'étoit pour acquerir un droit si précieux,
Que combattoît par tout mon bras ambitieux,
Et dans pharsale même il a tiré l'epee

Plus pour le conservir, que pour vaincre Pompe.
Je l'ai vaincu, Princesse, et le Dieu de combats
M'y favorisoit moints que vos divins appas.

Ils conduisoient ma main, ils enfloient mon courage,
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48

Cette pleine victoire est leur derneir ouvrage,
C'est l'effect des ardeurs qu'ils daignoient m'inspirer ;
Et vos beaux yeux enfin m'ayant fait soûpirer,
Pour faire que votre ame avec gloire y réponde,
M'ont rendu le premier, et de Rome, et du monde ;
C'est ce glorieux titre, à présent effectif,
Que je viens ennoblir par celui de captif;
Heureux, si mon esprit gagne tant sur le vôtre,
Qu'il en estime l'un, et me permette l'autre.

Pompee, Act IV. Sc. 3.

The last class comprehends sentiments that are unnatural, as being suited to no character nor passion. These may be subdivided into three branches: first, sentiments unsuitable to the constitution of man, and to the laws of his nature; second, inconsistent sentiments; third, sentiments that are pure rant and extravagance.

When the fable is of human affairs, every event, every incident, and every circumstance, ought to be natural, otherwise the imitation is imperfect. But an imperfect imitation is a venial fault, compared with that of running cross to nature. In the Hippolytus of Euripides,* Hippolytus, wishing for another self in his own situation, How much (says he) should I be touched with his misfortune! as if it were natural to grieve more for the misfortunes of another than for one's own.

Osmyn. Yet I behold her-yet-and now no more.
Turn your lights inward, Eyes, and view my thought.
So shall you still behold her-'twill not be.

O impotence of sight! mechanic sense
Which to exterior objects ow'st thy faculty,
Not seeing of election, but necessity.
Thus do our eyes, as do all common mirrors,
Successively reflect succeeding images.

Nor what they would, but must; a star or toad;
Just as the hand of chance administers!

Mourning Bride, Act II. Sc. &.

* Act iv. Sc. 5.

No man in his senses, ever thought of applying his eyes to discover what passes in his mind; far less of blaming his eyes for not seeing a thought or idea. In Moliere's L'Avare,* Harpagon being robbed of his money, seizes himself by the arm, mistaking it for that of the robber. And again he expresses himself as follows:

Je veux aller querir la justice, et faire donner la question à toute ma maison; à servantes, à valets, à fils, à fille, et à moi aussi. Of this second branch the following are examples.

-Now bid me run,

And I will strive with things impossible,

Yea get the better of them.

Julius Cesar, Act II. Sc. 3.

Vos mains seule sont droit de vaincre un invincible.

Le Cid, Act V. Sc. last..

Que son nom soit beni. Que.son nom soit chanté,

Que l'on celebre ses ouvrages

Au de la de l'eternité

Esther, Act V. Sc. last.

Me miserable! which way shall I fly

Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell: myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep, a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide;
To which the hell I suffer seems a heav'n.

Paradise Lost, Book IV.

Of the third branch, take the following samples. Lucan talking of Pompey's sepulchre,

-Romanum nomen, et omne

Inperium Magno est tumuli modus. Obrue saxa
Crimine plena deum. Si tota est Herculis Oete,
Et juga tota vacant Cromio Nyseia; quare
Unus in Egypto Magno lapis? Omnia Lagi

*Act iv. Sc. 7. t

Rura tenere potest, si nullo cespite nomen

Hæserit. Erremus populi, cinerumque tuorum,

Magne, metu nullas Nili calcemus arenas. L. viii. l. 798.

Thus in Rowe's translation:

Where there are seas, or air, or earth, or skies,
Where-e'er Rome's empire stretches, Pompey lies.
Far be the vile memorial then convey'd,
Nor let this stone the partial gods upbraid.
Shall Hercules all Oeta's heights demand,
And Nysa's hill for Bacchus only stand;
While one poor pebble is the warrior's doom
That fought the cause of liberty and Rome?
If Fate decrees he must in Egypt lie,
Let the whole Fertile realm his grave supply,
Yield the wide country to his awful shade
Nor let us dare on any part to tread,

Fearful we violate the nighty dead.

The following passages are pure rant. speaking to his mother,

What is this?

Your knees to me? to your corrected son?
Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach
Fillop the stars: then let the mutinous winds
Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun:
Murd'ring impossibility, to make
What cannot be, slight work.

Cesar.

Coriolanus

Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 3.

Danger knows full well,

That Cæsar is more dangerous than he.

We were two lions litter'd in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible.

Julius Cesar, Act II. Sc. 4.

Almahide. This day

I gave my faith to him, he his to me.