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Cl The ludicrous rises here to sublimity ; yet such is the power of early hahit and association , supported by an exclusion of every literary pursuit which can enlarge the mind > that Mr . Lamb , whose taste and mental powers were of no ordinary stamp , could seriously com elude his extract from the < Duchess of Malfy' with the followm * iud «^ ment . " * °
The reviewer then quotes a passage , with intent to bring contempt on some fine remarks of Charles Lamb , which are not adapted to the fantastic nose of the " small particular . * ' The passage concludes with these words : —
" To move a horror skilfully—to touch a soul to the quick—to lay upon fear as much a § it can bear—to wean and weary a . life till it is ready tQ drop , and tfreri step iu with mortal instruments to take its last forfeit-- —this only a Webster can do . Writers of an inferior genius may * upon horror ' s head horrors accumulate / but they cannot do this . They mistake quantity for quality ; they « terrify babes with painted devils ; ' but they know not how a soul is capable of being moved ; their terrors want dignity—their arTYightrnents are without decorum . *" The mus criticus immediately exclaims , —
€ i This is a strange infatuation ! Such observations on i want of dignity and decorum' connected with the syrup prescribed for the child ' s cold—this mistaking « quantity for quality , ' in conjunction with the incessant heaping up of external circumstances of horror—the ' painted devils to territ * y babes / side by side with the wax figures— -show a state of criticul engouement which could only be found iu a roan for whom , as it would seem , the universe had shrunk , into the Gajrrick Collection of Play « . "
The indignity offered to the tragic principle , and the maternal indecorum , exist only in the cramped , conventional mind and feelings of this trifler with humanity . He cannot , for the life and soul of him , ( such as they are ) meet Nature face to face . He does not understand the difference between quantity
and quality , because he only understands the former . ibis is 1 > roved by his placing " painted devils to frighten babes side 3 y side with the wax figures , " which are instanced by JLantb as antithetically different . Painted devils are mere horrible generalities ; the wax figures were particulars . The former are abstractions of the imagination only ; the latter represented ,
and were believed to be , the mortal remains of a woman s husband and children . It is a pity that this sad reviewer cannot enlarge his mind to the extent of a scene or two from some play in the Garrick collection . He ha * not the slightest eonception of the action and reaction of passion and imagination
on each other artd on themselves . Even the exnressicm of terrifying babes with painted decile , taken by itself , and without any tra g ic cause or principle , is far from a matter of ridicule . Grant toe existence of an impassioned state , " with all appliances" of time , and light , and shade ; or the delirium of a tick
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The I / tndaii Review v . The British Drama . 243
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 243, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/51/
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