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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.
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Untitled Article
202 Cosmo de Medici *
Untitled Article
u Cosmo . Oh unnatural government , That in a mental den lock'd up such deed I How doth it force itself thro' the cold pores Of that metallic mask , and curdle there ! Garcia ! thy soul is lost I * % * ? Garcia . I am no murderer . Cosmo . Now dost thou snatch the earth from under me And leave me grappling- space ;—hast thou not said Thou did ' st it ?"—p . 100 .
We cannot quote more from this scene ; it must be read entire . The point which stamps Cosmo de' Me diet as a great tragedy is yet to be noticed
Many extracts we have made ire sufficient to prove its author to be a great poet ; many are sufficient to prove that he can write scenes of dramatic power ; jut with all this , lie might not lave proved himself a great
dramatist . The point which stamps his work with its essential character as a whole , is the death of Cosmo . Cosmo has sustained unshaken the conflicts of
passionthe wreck of hope—still he is himself . He evinces mighty grief , but inward power supports him . The outward blows only centre him more strongly on his own spirit : —
" Cosmo . On the grey slope of life , when friends fail off , And e ' en the fresh flowers and the clouds look old % "When natural sweets are bitter in the mind , Hope dying of sick memory soon as horn , And beauty , like a lily ' s pure , cold urn ^ Standing in Lethe ' s waters , wakes no- * dense To ravishment , no thoughts to urge bur steps ; While grief , experience , and oblivion , In sequence old , come to dismiss the heart ; Mighty revealings of an after-state
Flit through the brain , and sobbings fill the ear , From the great winds' quadruple origin , And make man fear himself . But Justice reigns ! Creation and destruction are the extremes , With all the heavens for centre . Still , we shudder Yet one power holds . Unwavering consciousness Of general practice in humanity , Is all that shores us up against the eye
Of deep self-scrutiny ; the only Which can enable man , howe ' er To look his own being , steadily It is not till the entrance of : ie Pirate , who witnessed the utal contest between his sons , nat Cosmo is conquered . |[ e would have survived Iris
power appalled , m the face . "—p . 110 , 111 . grief ; but the consciousness that he had been frightfully unjust , the intolerable reflection that his judgment ( involving as it did a tragic act , the execution
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/58/
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