On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
nature . " We will conclude therefore , these numerous instance * of what a man ofcc regular education / ' who " enjoys the blessing * of a confirmed literary taste , " doth most consistently hate and deride , with a specimen of what he relishes and applauds . We have shown what ideas and modes of expression he considers vulgar or worthless ; we will now show what he consider the highest excellence .
He quotes a long scene from " The Spanish Tragedy , ot > Hieronymo is Mad again , " by Thomas Kyd . He designates it as " a powerful scene . " Now this inconsistency [ we felt , at first , coming as it does after all his previous tirades and phillippics , was really " the unkindest cut of all . " That it is a powerftil scene We most unequivocally admit , nor do we think there is
a finer extant in any play , by any writer . But there are different definitions in the minds of different men as to power ; and thia being settled , —then , where , or in what points and pasa&g * & is it powerful , and why ? With this understanding it will presently be discovered that the real aduiirers of the scene in question , are just as far apart from this reviewer , as if ike-had " lumped it" with the " essentially wrong plan" of Shakspeare and the rest of the blunderers !
The reviewer , from a secret misgiving , ventures no remark on particular passages throughout the scene , with one exception . Hieronymo ' s brain is disordered by grief for the loss of his son who has been cruelly murdered , and the wretched father breaks into the following reproach of night , and day , and heaven ' s ministers .
** liter , —Light me your torches at the mid of noon , Whenas the sun » god rides in all his glory , Lig ht me your torches then ! Ped . —Then w € burn daylight . Uier . —Let it he burnt . Night is a niLml ' rous slut , That would not have her treasons to be seen , And yonder pale-faced Hecate there , the moon , froth give consent to that is < loiie in darkness ; And all those stars that gaze upon her face Are aglets on her sleeve , pins oh hir train . And those that should be powerful and divine JDo sleep in darkness when they most should shine . Ped , —Provoke them not , fair sir , with tempting word * , The heavens are gracious , and your inineties And sorrow , make y&w siurak you know not what , "
W W 1 W Whether the apparently unnecessary introduction of the toilet trivialities of Hecate , niay find any qualification in the wild complexity of association which madness gives too the train of ideas , is left for the reader ' s decision ; but with the exception of that line , and the tautology in sen Be , of "miseries « £ jdi sorrow /* it willlbe perceived that the " style and diction" of the
Untitled Article
The London Review v . The British Drama . S 51
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 251, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/59/
-