Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

is extremely apt to deviate into bombaft: he ftrains above his genius; and the violent effort he makes, carries him generally beyond the bounds of propriety. Boileau expreffes this happily :

L'autre à peur de ramper, il fe perd dans la nue *.

The fame author, Ben Johnfon, abounds in the bombaft:

The mother

Th' expulfed Apicata, finds them there;

Whom when the faw lie fpread on the degrees,

After a world of fury on herself,

Tearing her hair, defacing of her face,

Beating her breafts and womb, kneeling amaz'd,
Crying to heav'n, then to them; at last
Her drowned voice got up above her woes
And with fuch black and bitter execrations,
(As might affright the gods, and force the fun
Run backward to the east; nay, make the old
Deformed chaos rife again t' o'erwhelm

Them, us, and all the world), the fills the air,
Upbraids the heavens with their partial dooms,
Defies their tyrannous powers, and demands
What she and those poor innocents have tranfgrefs'd,
That they must fuffer fuch a share in vengeance.

Sejanus, at 5. fc. laft.

Lentulus, the man,

If all our fire were out, would fetch down new,

L'art poet. chant. 1. 1. 68.

P 4

Out

Out of the hand of Jove; and rivet him

To Caucafus, fhould he but frown; and let

His own gaunt eagle fly at him to tire.

Catiline, act 3.

Can thefe, or fuch, be any aid to us?
Look they as they were built to shake the world,
Or be a moment to our enterprise ?

A thousand, fuch as they are, could not make
One atom of our fouls. They should be men
Worth heaven's fear, that looking up, but thus,
Would make Jove stand upon his guard, and draw
Himself within his thunder; which, amaz'd,
He fhould discharge in vain, and they unhurt.
Or, if they were, like Capaneus at Thebes,
They should hang dead upon the highest spires,
And ask the second bolt to be thrown down.
Why Lentulus talk you fo long? This time
Had been enough t'have scatter'd all the stars,

T'have quench'd the fun and moon, and made the world
Defpair of day, or any light but ours.

This is the language of a madman :

Catiline, act 4.

Guilford. Give way, and let the gufhing torrent come, Behold the tears we bring to fwell the deluge,

Till the flood rife upon the guilty world

And make the ruin common.

Lady Jane Gray, act. 4. near the end.

Another fpecies of falfe fublime, is ftill more faulty than bombaft; and that is, to force an elevation by introducing imaginary beings with

out

out preferving any propriety in their actions; as if it were lawful to afcribe every extravagance and inconfiftence to beings of the poet's creation. No writers are more licentious in this article than Johnfon and Dryden:

Methinks I fee Death and the furies waiting
What we will do, and all the heaven at leisure

For the great spectacle.
And if our destiny envy

Draw then your swords :
our virtue

The honour of the day, yet let us care
To fell ourselves at fuch a price, as may
Undo the world to buy us, and make Fate,

While fhe tempts ours, to fear her own eftate.

Catiline, at 5.

The furies ftood on hills

Circling the place, and trembled to fee men

Do more than they:

Griev'd for that fide,

whilft Piety left the field,
that in fo bad a caufe

They knew not what a crime their valour was,

The Sun ftood ftill, and was, behind the cloud

The battle made, feen fweating to drive up

His frighted horfe, whom ftill the noife drove backward.

Ibid. at 5.

Ofmyn. While we indulge our common happiness,

He is forgot by whom we all poffefs,

The brave Almanzor, to whofe arms we owe

All that we did, and all that we shall do;

Who like a tempeft that outrides the wind,
Made a juft battle ere the bodies join'd.

Abdalla. His victories we fcarce could keep in view,

Or polish 'em fo faft as he rough drew.

Abdemelech.

Abdemclech. Fate after him below with pain did move, And Victory could fcarce keep pace above. Death did at length fo many flain forget,

And loft the tale, and took 'em by the great.

Conquest of Granada, act 2. at beginning.

The gods of Rome fight for ye; loud Fame calls ye,
Pitch'd on the toplefs Apenine, and blows

To all the under world, all nations,

The feas and unfrequented deferts, where the fnow dwells,
Wakens the ruin'd monuments, and there

Where nothing but eternal death and fleep is,
Informs again the dead bones.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, act 3. fc. 3.

An actor upon the stage may be guilty of bombaft as well as an author in his clofet: a certain manner of acting, which is grand when fupported by dignity in the fentiment and force in the expreffion, is ridiculous where the fentiment is mean and the expreffion flat.

This chapter fhall be clofed with the following obfervations: When the fubliine is carried to its due height, and circumfcribed within proper bounds, it inchants the mind, and raifes the most delightful of all emotions: the reader, ingroffed by a fublime object, feels himself raised as it were to a higher rank. When fuch is the effect, it is not wonderful that the hiftory of conquerors and heroes, fhould be univerfally the favourite entertainment. And this fairly accounts for what I once erroneously fufpected to be a wrong bias originally in human nature; which is, that the groffeft

acts

acts of oppreffion and injuftice, fcarce blemish the character of a great conqueror: we, notwithftanding, warmly espouse his interest, accompany him in his exploits, and are anxious for his fuccefs: the fplendor and enthufiafim of the hero transfufed into the readers, elevate their minds far above the rules of juftice, and render them in a great meafure infenfible of the wrongs that are committed:

For in those days might only fhall be admir'd,
And valour and heroic virtue call'd;

To overcome in battle, and fubdue

Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite
Manflaughter, fhall be held the highest pitch
Of human glory, and for glory done

Of triumph, to be ftyl❜d great conquerors,
Patrons of mankind, gods, and fons of gods.
Destroyers rightlier call'd, and plagues of men.
Thus fame fhall be atchiev'd, renown on earth,
And what moft merits fame in filence hid.

Milton, b. 11.

The irregular influence of grandeur reaches alfo to other matters: however good, honeft, or useful, a man may be, he is not fo much respected, as is one of a more elevated character, though of lefs integrity; nor do the misfortunes of the former, affect us fo much as thofe of the latter and I add, because it cannot be difguifed, that the remorfe which attends breach of engagement,

« AnkstesnisTęsti »