On this page
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
of two sons and of his wife are asserted or darkly conjectured by after historians to have been caused by the murder of one brother by the hand of the
other , and the execution of the murderer by the stern justice of his father ; while the death of their mother is attributed to
horror and grief . These events form the groundwork of the tragedy . Mr Home has of course taken his own view of the motives which caused them . He has supposed the death of Prince Giovanni to have
occurred in a hasty quarrel with liis brother , induced by incompatibility of taste and temperament , and aggravated by the sudden discovery that they were rivals in love . He has kept " A closely to the historical estimate of Cosmo himself . A
dramatist , " he says in his preface , " is amply justified in considering Cosmo , the first Grand Duke of Tuscany , as a man of commanding intellect xnd natural nobility . "
The grand characteristic of Cosmo , as rendered by Mr Home , is power . It is his : > ride to rule his passions " as lis slaves / 7 and by his commanding will and intellect , to rovern himself and rule the
ates of others with unerring ustice . We see him moving Lt his pleasure all the natures
Untitled Article
within the sphere of his influence—all except one—the impassioned nature of Garcia . It is the action and re-action of these two minds which impel the tragedy onwards , while the contrast between the brothers
is the immediate cause of the action . This contrast is finely marked . Giovanni is refined , accomplished , learned ; Garcia impulsive , poetical , and
possessing the temperament of genius . The will of Cosmo , which has moulded the gentler nature of Giovanni , coming into collision with Garcia's
strength of individuality , has given and received a shock ; they are mutually repelled . Cosmo has become neglectful of the being whom he cannot control and direct in his own
way ; and Garcia , feeling his action fettered by the hand of his father , which influences all around him , has become indisposed to any regular course of rational action , and his imagination and passions have naturally acquired an undue
predominance . His energy is thrown out in field sports and active exercises , and the spirit of bounding youth and freshness is apparent in him , in the earlier parts of the drama , as in his replies to the Duchess when she is urging him to a reconciliation with Giovanni : —
" But mark !—my brother loves the cloister ; I love the study of the silent fields , And boundless heavens full of nameless hopes , As he the library and thoughts of books : How can we join ?"—p / 21 .
The tinge of bitterness which is apparent in him , as in the
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/50/
-