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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
he # ays about riot clad in grey hairs , ' of the mouse ( tc whom a cat mast appear iimch the dame as a fiend does to man ) , who should be forced to take up her lodging in the cat ' s ear , so that every breath , pulse , sensation , and
thought , may be imagined to be known by the arch enemy ; of the powerful Duchess beings reduced below the painful , sleepless , and helpless condition of a " little infant that breeds its teeth ; " of the deep and suggestive truth , that nature often becomes fantastical on tlie death-bed , and affects fashion in the grave ; and of the living bein ^ , standing in presence of her
tomb-maker ! He mistakes Bosola for a mere vulgar melodramatic bravo . He does not comprehend how the "D uchess could be deceived by an image of wax , and think it a corpse ; because , like as they are to each other , even to an ordinary eye by lamp light , he does not understand the passion through the medium of which it is seen . He thinks the Duchess might have
gone close up to the bodies ( whether permitted or not ) and discovered what they owed to the particular light and shade in which they were placed ; whether the frightful stain upon their fi ^ arjnents was blood or paint , by wetting and smelling' it ;
and whether they were wax or real corpses , by scraping their faces Tvith a pen-knife . He has not read the play r or he might hav $ ' perceived that the Duchess has been imprisoned , and probably Italf-6 tarved , so that her imagination would be liable to tyrannize over her weakened frame . He has proved himself quite unable to see that , besides merely working up the horror
of the scene by introducing the dance of maniacs with music descriptive of their several states , Webster has accomplished the far greater end of displajing the powerful mind and character of the Duchess ; for assuredly such a scene , following such trials , was enough to have driven an ordinary man or
woman as mad as the surrounding group . A fine gradation is shown . Amidst her repeated inquiries concerning Bosola ' s saniW , she seems a little staggered as to her own identity . * ' Iio ' st' thou perceive me sick?—do ' st know me?—who am I ? am not I thy Duchess ? " But she presently rises with full dignity ancl the concentration of lofty defiance— " I am Duchess of Maify . still !** Herein , then , are found the " dignity and decorum ' * which the reviewer cannot understand .
Such scenes as tlicse are so rich with palpable meaning , deep suggestions , and fine veins that run mining among the roots of agonised ' 'humanity , that it is scarcely possible for one mind to discover all they contain . As the reader who can sympathise with tnese profound writings may have been struck wit" many omissions on our part , he may naturally entertain doubts of the possibility of the reviewer ' s utter and thoroughgoing blindtesfc , and think wo have exaggerated the non-comprehension
Untitled Article
MO The London Review v . The British Dramd ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/48/
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